Jade Tears
by ladydove7
Summary: Shadowrun-In a world of technology in the year 2040, megacorps rule, magic and cybertech mix, an elf named Aurora Adonai Runs the night to build her life into an alter to her horrifying past, her painful present, and her uncertain future.
1. Talk of Dreams

**Jade Tears**   
_Part 1: Talk of Dreams_   
  


All the lights are out now. It's quiet. I can never stand it when it's like this. Months and months of quietness. I sit here. The lamp's broken, so's the mirror..I broke it the night I got home.._that_ night. He was the only one who could keep me from doing things like that..keep me from my own anger. But now he's not here. 

I'd give anything to hear a whisper or just to see a silent smile. 

It's driving me crazy. My fingertips and the blades dug into the table. Damned cheap acrylics!! Anything is better than my own flesh. I hid the scars before. But this time they are deeper. They cut to the core. 

Just a smile!!! I put my hands to my ears and covered them. I didn't want to hear my own crying. I'd had enough of it. I'd lived all these years learning not to cry. Only thing that takes it away is sleep. My head lulled. I had no more tears for tonight. They'd just start again tomorrow. But then I opened myself up to dreams. Or are they memories? Wishful ones, good ones..bad ones. My subconscious doesn't discriminate. David would sit there at the end of my bed..leaning his head against the bedpost and watch me dream. That image always comes into my mind before I dream. I miss you. Can't you lead me to that place? 

"Will you take the mission?" The Johnson interlaced his fingers together as he spoke. 

Retrieve a data disc. Get in top security, get out, no questions asked. Piece o' cake. 44 Floors. Piece o cake. Though I hadn't had much luck with runs, lately. What the hell? I was in it for the rush. I'm in it for the pain. Maybe I'd meet my match? Hah! Maybe I'd meet death and he'd put me outta my misery? HAH!! I was ready for 'em, and when he finds me, I'll smile and blow him a kiss! 

Things went off without a hitch. We got in the building scot-free. But then the lights flickered and went out and the team was left wondering in the dark. It was no problem. Most of us had thermops besides the mage. Poor bastard. Then there was something up ahead. It came from the darkness like the hands of Kami, cold thatchworks in our thermoptics. We're too busy looking when we're all slammed to the floor. Things weren't going as expected. Ah well, this wasn't the first time I'd hit the floor, the feeling of unconsciousness was beginning to become familiar and comfortable. It was a trip away from the real world. 

BAM! The real world came back! Always, always like a slap in the face. Like the world got mad and decided to plague me again. I awoke in a cold room, not unlike a meat locker. And there we all were, the pieces of meat. I scanned the room and I could make out the others. Natalie, Neo, Glen, the shaman was gone. We were all strapped to metal tables like dead bodies. A sneering face caught my attention. Only a corporation doctor could sport that type of sadistic grin. My heart jumped when I saw Ghost behind him, hung out and restrained like the rest of us, unconscious, the fragging bastard. If it weren't for the situation I was in now, I would have enjoyed the moment. The doctor welcomed us to his laboratory. It's only when he goes up to Nat that he especially catches my attention. He stood in front of her, leering at her, speaking about her as if she were some new pet of his. The doctor said she was pregnant. _Pregnant! _My teeth grated together, my fangs ripping the inner tissue of my lips slightly, making me taste my own blood. _Fraggin bastard. _I screamed out in anger as the doc prattled on about cutting the children out of her. Horns and fangs all beared. The real me. I screamed and it did nothing. 

"..there are three counterparts to the project..to creating the perfect soldier. Ghost was our first attempt at creating this soldier. He was a failure, he had emotions. We tried to take care of his little folly by murdering the object of his devotions. But he still remained 'human' to our disapproval…" The doc paused as one of his corporate lackeys dragged a medium sized figure into the room. They hung the man up by his arms and strapped him to a vertical table beside Ghost. The doc's shriveled head bobbed as his sneer turned into a frown of displeasure. "This one has been giving us trouble for quite some time. He is another failure." He lifted the man's face up and then let his head dangle back against his chest. He was so much smaller than Ghost, it would've made me laugh if I wasn't screaming in fury at that time. He was almost frail looking, with Japanese set cheekbones and eyes. A tuft of black spiky hair shot out from the constrains of a dark mask that covered half of his face. 

"Ahh..but this is our prize specimen!" The doc motioned to a lumbering behemoth of a man that emerged from a door on the other side of the room. "Redic is the perfect symbiosis of cold calculation, and the deadly skill we require. He is the perfect soldier. Where we failed in the others, we redeemed in him." Redic smiled at us, regarding us like pieces of meat. He was a big black monster licking his lips at the latest menu. Yeah I could see the resemblance between Ghost and him. Both big bastards. 

_The Father, the Son, and the Holey Ghost…that's for sure. _

I was wailing by now. The guards took Nat and pulled her away from us, face full of fright and tears. She looked back, blue cat eyes calling out for help, but the doors closed and she was ripped away from us, from me. I had to do something! Anything!!! But I can't..I couldn't. The table held me stiff. I would not fail her again! I'd failed her before…too many times. I couldn't let her be taken again!! Redic and the doctor left us, the doc making some snide remark about how the cyberware in my body would be most welcome in their laboratories. I was left there alone to boil alive in my own anger. That's when Ghost started to come round. 

I screamed at him, "You fragging bastard! You stupid coward! You slag! Can't you do anything??? Get up and fight!!" 

Fight because I don't have the strength. Fight because you can save her and I can't. Fight because you love _her_ and not _me_. 

Needless to say, it worked. Ghost tore free from his bindings, almost taking a chunk of the wall with him. And like the knight in shining armor in all the fairy tales no one ever read to me, he rushed off to save his princess, and I was left there alone…alone…just like always. 

The lights flickered again, fluttering dark butterflies over my eyelids. The straps loosened and I was free! I looked to where the other man had been, the masked one, and the table was empty. I forgot myself and rushed out of the room and into the hallway. I had to get to Nat before she got hurt. I had to find her. But I didn't know where to go…the hallways spread out like a labyrinth of steel. And suddenly there he was, the ninja. His eyes were pure white moons against his skin, empty eyes. 

_I wonder if the eyes really are the windows to the soul. _

We ran the hallways, and still we couldn't find her. My heart choked with frustration and I babbled like I always do when I couldn't accomplish something. 

"We have to find her!! I have to save her!! We have to …" 

White-Eyes put his fingers on my lips and shushed me, bringing his fingers up to his own lips hidden beneath the dark mask. Surprisingly, I shut up without a word. How very interesting. Silent types are so very rare nowadays. The others finally caught up. Glen, my poor, poor elf, and Neo, my mage friend. Even with them there, we're surrounded in seconds by monstrous drones. The insectoid things swarmed around us feverishly, unaffected by anything we threw at it, even spells. White-Eyes raised his arms as if he was about to make a prayer, but instead, our world illuminated in sky blue. The metal creatures were held at bay by a thin icing of energy surrounding us. The drones chittered and chattered their metallic, soulless frustrations as they pounded away at the shield. My masked hero seemed to be not doing so well. He began to bow ever so slightly with the shield. Not knowing what else to do, I ran up behind him and whispered words of encouragement into his ear. 

"Umm.yeah..you're doin good. Just keep it up.." I placed my hands on his shoulder blades in an effort to keep him calm so he could sustain the spell. He looked back momentarily, replying with silence and a flash of his moon eyes. I withdrew my hands, thinking myself more of a distraction and then backed away. Claustrophobia was setting in, I HAD to get out and get to Nat. I had to or I'd rip myself apart. White-Eyes lowered his arms and turned to us. He waved his hands and we were no longer standing in that hallway, but in another hallway free of enemies. The haze of confusion was broken by the crashes we heard ahead, and the screams. Natalie! We ran towards the commotion, but we were stopped in our tracks by something _big_. 

It was Redic, smiling like before at his tidbits. And like the fool that I am, I rushed in, my thoughts only of Nat, not of how I could take someone four times as big as me. Hand-blades protracted all the way, I ripped and slashed wildly, screaming with my fangs bared and my horns out to reveal my 'inner self'. I always saw myself as my inner demon. It's why I chose these particular implants. Like a demon I fought, wildly and without the sense of losing. Redic caught me by the arms and lifted me off the ground, one tattooed wrist held in each giant hand. I kicked and writhed, but to no avail. The ape pulled on the Aurora doll and my arms tensed with the strain, the dermal ware the only thing keeping me in one piece. I screamed and tossed my head back, then lurched it forward with all the strength I could muster to head-butt him. Cranial crashed with cranial and my vision dimmed as the force of the impact cracked my skull. I heard the sickening scrape of bone and metal when my horns were forced back into my head. Stars danced in my vision. My headware started to fritz, sending colorful pops and fizzles across my vision. I could feel the liquid blood oozing out across my face. That was a bad idea I realized. The troll wannabe pulled harder and I felt my joints sliding, just barely able to hold into their sockets, when he suddenly decided I was no fun anymore and tossed me back into the air. I found a soft landing cushion on top of Glenn. 

I scrambled off of him, not giving a shit about my arms, and ran down the hallway towards where I heard the screams. Nat was ahead, she had to be. I ran into another world of chaos. Redic and Ghost had tangled themselves together in a fistfight. How heroic. Ghost landed a punch against the behemoth's jaw, sending him backwards only a few steps. Nat was near, she just had to be!!! I shouted out Ghost's name and he looked up for just a split second at me. Taking advantage of that second, Redic hoisted him with his brute strength and slammed him into the steel wall. Ghost kicked him off with a mighty two-footed lunge and stumbled out of the hole in the wall. He slumped over, a beam impaled haphazardly through his abdomen. I ran past the two. 

At least Redic was distracted so I could get to Nat! Ghost could handle himself; he's a big boy. 

Finally, I found Nat. There was no sign of the doc, and Nat was all in one piece. Thank Buddha. I hurriedly tried to free her of the surgical restraints. Her crying eyes implored me to go faster. Finally! Finally! She was free and we could get the hell out of there! I pulled on her to hurry when Ghost staggered into the room and collapsed before us. There was blood everywhere and it was coming from him. Funny, I had never seen him with his mask completely off. So he did actually have a normal face, one that happened to be beaten and bleeding at the moment. His raven hair matted against his sweaty brow. Nat ran up to him as I paced around the two nervously. This wasn't what I wanted. Or was it? I was confused. He couldn't really be dying, could he? Could he?!? The sticky blood was everywhere. Even Ghost could bleed. My mind did back flips to a bedroom full of blood and a lonely kitchen knife shining dully red. Not there..not there. I paced even more frantically as Nat uttered words to him. Ghost smiled at her and he softly closed his blue eyes. It was a sweet smile, one I never expected from him. He couldn't be… 

I leapt on him like a beast and beat his chest with cupped fists. "You can't be dead!" I beat them down again. There was that damned smile. It was making me angry. Natalie sat back away from us both, stunned, silent, horrified. He just couldn't be!! "You wake up now!! Damn it!" I beat again and again and again. Still no heartbeat. Still no…. 

_Fast forward. I don't like this part._

It was a month or two after the incident. Ghost, everyone's favorite neighborhood genetic behemoth, had gotten over his slight case of death. In that tiny month I lost a good friend, Glenn, in a freak bus accident. He was a ray of humanity in this world. He was another link to it that I lost. For this strange period of time, White-Eyes somehow convinced us to let him stay with us in our apartment. It was big enough for all of us and we just felt like he had no other place to go. He had saved us from the building after-all. I guess we owed him for that. It was odd. He just kinda stayed out of our way, silently watching the activity. Pooky, the shit factory with wings (or a psuedo-dragon if some would call him that), seemed to have a strange affinity for White-Eyes. He'd purch on his shoulder and purr contently. Ghost was out for weeks at a time. Whenever he was around, White-Eyes would somehow disappear. I guess it was for the good of us both. The more Ghost was gone, the more content I could be. 

The one time he did happen to be there when Ghost came in the apartment. It was the strangest thing. He was sitting on the couch and I was over in the loveseat glued to the tech channel. The door swang open and he marched in like he always did. Nat ran up to him and jumped to give him a hug. I looked up only momentarily. The TV was more interesting. I glanced over slightly at the couch and surprisingly, White-Eyes was standing up. On his face was a glare of hate that I had seen many times in my own eyes. I got up and waved my hand in front of his face. He pushed past me and started to walk towards Ghost, that menacing glint still in his white eyes. 

"Yikes!" I let out a yelp of surprise as I ran after him and started to pull him back, asking him what the hell was wrong with him. He kept going. I looked to Ghost, and my face froze. The little node on his eye was glowing red. That wasn't a good sign. Nat looked from Ghost to White-Eyes and back again, and then we both knew that they meant to kill each other. Nat tried in vain to hold back the nine foot tall Ghost. I had a bit more luck, White-Eyes was small enough for me to heft him over my shoulders and run like hell. I skimmed past Ghost and made it to my Scorpion. I could feel little ninja's muscles tensing as his arms flailed wildly behind my head. I heard the familiar sound of a katana slicing through the air. From out of nowhere he had produced a sword! I revved the bike up as quickly as I could, taking off so fast a scraped one booted foot on the pavement, making it smoke. The tires screeched for an instant. 

"Calm down back there! OW!" I yelled when he randomly hit the back of my head with his hand. After a few minutes of riding, he was calm. It started to look awkward to people on the street having a man draped over one shoulder so I pulled over on a side street and put him down. 

"You alright now?" I stood arms crossed and stared at him. 

He shifted his eyes to me and then to the side and nodded yes. "Uhh…how bout dinner then?" 

He nodded again. I sighed and purveyed the alley. Then I realized something. All this time we never even knew his name. "You have a name, don't you?" It was the strangest thing. We never even asked his name, we just seemed to automatically let this stranger into our lives. He waited a few seconds, almost as if he was pondering if he had a name or not. 

"It's Phantom." 

"Phantom?" I couldn't help but let a big smile cover my face. It almost made me laugh. "Riiight…Phantom it is." I giggled underneath my breath. It sounded like a name straight out of a comic book. Hehhe, and then he was still wearing his mask, had worn it all this time. I passed it off as some silly fetish; I had enough of my own so it was no biggie to see it in others. 

"Where'd you get a sword like that anyways?" I asked to keep up conversation as we walked up the gloomy side street, me rolling my motorcycle along. His sword was a fine piece of craftsmanship. It wasn't your standard Street Sammie gimme sword. From the looks of it, it was specially crafted, Government-Issue. I'd give my left ear for it if I could. 

"Being grown in a tube gives you access to a lot of things." He replied, almost sounding sarcastic. 

"Oh…" I trailed off, not understanding. "Soo, Japanese then?" Another nod. We continued to walk in silence until a group of gangly figures stopped us in our tracks. It was an Orc gang. One of them, who was shorter than the others, walked up to Phantom and stood face to face with him. "Hey Pal," the Orc snorted, "Remember me? I'm going to kick your ass!!" 

"Why don't you just leave and mind your own fraggin business? You got a chip loose or something?" I yelled at the stupid Orc, who peered at me, snorted, and returned his attentions to Phantom. The Orc took a swing at him. Phantom stood casually, seemingly bored with the Orc's attempts. He raised his arm up, crosswise with the Orc's arm. As I watched, his moon eyes began to glow softly blue. Phantom whipped his arm back and lifted his hand into the air. The Orc was thrown upwards into space by a powerful invisible force then tossed into the middle of the main street. Horns blared as traffic swirved around him. He collapsed there, dazed and confused. Phantom's eyes slitted as the other Orcs looked to each other and then ran to their fallen friend. I stared at him, slack jawed and wide-eyed. 

We continued walking. I stared at him eyes wide. Wow… 

We had dinner. The whole time I stared at him trying to notice something I hadn't before. He was just too different. There had to be something I was missing. After dinner, we went to a weapons store that he was a regular at, and then he led me down the street a couple of blocks to an apartment building. He apparently had a room there. 

"So you've had a place to live this whole time???" I stared at him, a little angry, a little knowing. He simply nodded yes and motioned with a flick of his chin for me to go up to his place. Against my common sense, I went up. I was interested to see what type of place he had. 

It was a nice place. Large and roomy, but with sparse furnishing. He had just enough to suit himself but not much else. Anything else was probably decorative furnishings required by the complex owners. He had a nice kitchen with a wraparound, white-tiled counter and stove. It was astonishingly clean for a guy's apartment. My eyes passed quickly over the bedroom and back to the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. Even if I couldn't cook, it was nice. I bit my lip and bobbed my head nervously. "Nice place you have…" I tried to play off my nervousness. I put my hand on a crystal lamp to admire it, knocked it over, and fumbled with it till it finally rolled to the floor. "…here" I looked at him and smiled real big, most likely looking like an idiot. He walked past me and towards the other side of the apartment. "Soo.." I fiddled ceaselessly with the fake nails that covered my handblades. 

He stood in front of a large window with a beautiful view of the city's millions of lights and lifted his hands to his face. I saw him adjust the sides of his mask and pull it down. His mask was off! I just had to see this!! I quickly strode into the bedroom and watched him as he turned to face me slowly. He had an angular face, almost like an elf's, delicate, graceful, but powerful. He had small, sweeping lips that fit his small chin. Black hair spiked up from his head like an ebony crown. His high cheekbones and slanted eyes were defining in the Japanese way. I'd always found that sexy. I involuntarily lifted an eyebrow and released my breath loudly in a 'phoo' noise. I nodded to myself. Not too shabby. I sat down, realized I was sitting on the bed, and then shot back up to my feet. I stood straight up like a soldier and stared at him like a rat caught in a flashlight. 

He approached me leisurely and came close, so close I could feel his soft breath against my lips. I slid away and turned my back on him. This was too much. Too, too much. I clinched my eyes shut and shook my head. He didn't come close as I expected him to do, like others had done. He stood back away from me. The silence I thought seemed to hurt him. Suddenly he broke that silence. 

"You've never been with a man before?" He asked innocently, almost childlike in his hurt and his questioning, but so sincere. 

I shook my head again no, this time more fervently. THAT definitely wasn't it. "I..I just…" I broke off into a heavy sigh and turned to look at him, my eyes watering. He tilted his head curiously. I shut my eyes to block out the world. I was alone there in self-enforced darkness, till I felt his warm hands close over my own. I kept my eyes closed and waited silently. I felt his lips cover my own briefly then release. 

"Open yourself." He talked to me gently. "Open your mind." 

He put his forehead against my own, his black hair tickling me. Something inside told me to do it, just to let myself go. Things had been pent up for too long, even from Nat. Now was the time to let it out, free myself. Just an instant, I let him feel every little thing that ever distorted my mind. I let him see into my mind, the fractured color of my soul. The distorted doll that was me. The clipped butterfly that was me. Everything that ever made me want to cry when I couldn't, and the very little things that ever made me happy. I let him see the night I killed David. The blood trail that led from the bedroom to the kitchen, the one I had to clean up with the bathroom sponge. I let him see the broken me, the Little Butterfly that David possessed, who took me and made me his whenever he pleased, who shaped me into what I was, what I am. 

He suddenly let go of my hands, the absence of them leaving me cold and trembling. I opened my eyes and watched him as he stared out into the blazing lights of the city. 

"You can leave if you want to." 

I stared at him, confused. "I don't want to leave." I whispered. My heart was melting. He looked back at me and stared at me with those same empty moon eyes. Then he was gone, and I was alone. 

I awoke with a start. The dreaming memories were over. I always woke up at this time of night, for Lucia. She always wants a glass of water around this time. On cue she came in and looked at me with those imploring puppy dog eyes. 

"Water mommy?" She tugged on my arm and gave me a hug, her little arms barely able to wrap around my legs. I took her hand and led her into the bathroom and gave her a paper cup of water. She drank it and smiled at me innocently, as if nothing else in the world mattered besides having a cup of water and hugging her mommy. I rubbed her hair affectionately, raven spikey just like her father's. She blinked her dark green eyes and yawned, her tiny mouth small and pouty. I could see that she had lost almost all of her baby teeth. Her little elven ears twitched a couple times as she finished the yawn. She was dressed in one of my old t- shirts that draped down the length of her tiny body and dragged on the floor. She kept growing out of her baby clothes. Within two months, she was already the size of a five-year-old. 

"Okay now sweety, back to bed." I led her off automatically. After nights of doing this, it had become routine. She clutched a glove to her chest as if her life depended upon it. It was one of Phantom's, she always chewed on it or carried it around when she was smaller and she still kept it with her. I tucked her into the covers and she fell right back to sleep with the ease of extreme youth, cuddling up with the glove. Like every parent, I saw a reflection of me when I was smaller. It made me think. Did they use you like a doll? Did they make you their killing doll? I watched Lucia for a few more minutes and then fell back to sleep on the couch to the drone of the cybertech channel. I know you're alive. Always in these in-between hours do I hear you. Speak to me…speak to me please. 

_Speak to me._

* * *

  
**To the Next Part!**


	2. Burning Memory

**Jade Tears**   
_Part 2: Burning Memory_   


"Hey buddy, are you alright?!" 

Those were the first words I heard. They didn't make sense at the time, but soon it all came back to me, the place where I was, what had happened. It was all one jumbled mess, something I wasn't used to in the slightest bit. 

_ Every night I burn._

"What's your name? Jesus…how is he still alive? There's barely anything here, everything that's left is charred black! Hey buddy, just hang on…we will get you to the doc as soon as we can!" 

"Keiji…Kage…" Those were my first words before I blacked out. The man speaking to me was the paramedic, the one who pulled me from the flames. I never saw him again. 

When my eyes reopened, I was in a room. Various mechanical and technological devices furnished the room. The continuous beep, beep, beep of the machines was all I heard for the first few moments. Then it dulled away, I was able to concentrate then. I was lying on a hospital bed, wrapped in bandages. As I looked down nearly half of my body was…missing. It was then my attention was pulled to the voices in the room, two of them speaking to each other. 

_Every night I call your name._

"Nearly sixty percent of his body is missing. He has third degree burns covering the remaining forty percent. He's lucky to be alive; I don't really know what's keeping him stable. The shock alone should have been enough to kill him, it's amazing…how could one person take so much damage and still be alive?? I don't think he will last much longer, his life signs are fading rapidly" Spoke one voice. 

"I'm not interested in what's happened to him, I'm only interested in results doctor. Now answer my question, can you keep him alive for the duration of the process? Can I use him or not? Mind you this is costing me a great deal of money, both for the process and keeping your mouth shut. Everything about him matches down to his DNA. He has no family, no one will miss him nor will anyone know he is gone." Came the other voice…it sounded Japanese, full of anger and rage. 

"Well…yes we can keep him alive, but is this really the one? We will have to replace the missing parts…it's going to be difficult to find specimens with the correct blood and tissue type if we are going to do this in time to save him. It would take weeks of access to get anything like that here at the hospital. Even if we did get the parts, he would only be an empty shell…we can't do this in time to replace the internal organs he's lost…maybe you should just look for someone el…" The voice was cut off, the Japanese one louder now. 

"If the correct specimens are too hard to get then take your pick from my corporate army here in Japan! And you are a specialist in genetic regeneration are you not? We will transport you and your team to the Mishima building and there you can use our best equipment. The deadline if approaching doctor, I wont be late for it. Get the parts. Put him back together. Keep him alive for the duration of the project. Be ready to leave for the Mishima building." 

There were footsteps now, two pairs. One left while the other came closer. I could see a man, Japanese as I first thought…dressed in a purple suit. There was something in his eyes, something dark and angry as he looked at me…grinned at me before speaking. 

"We finally found a match. You should thank me, without me you would have died by now. Just remember that, you owe your life to me. Of course soon you wont remember anything at all. Get some rest; this is the last day you'll remember yourself as you are now…who you are now." Laughing filled the room then, the sound causing my very mind to shudder and give out. 

_Every night I burn._

When next I awoke, I was surrounded by water…no…slime? Gel? Something of that content. I was upright, not standing…but suspended within the gel. I was in a room; it too filled with technological devices of all sorts. Everything was given a shade of green, but I could still make out the moving figures…doctors? No, not doctors…but dressed like them. And then that suit…the purple, I could still make it out amongst all that green. Then the voices set in. 

"Well doctor, how is the progress with our patient? Everything is going according to plan, correct? I would hate to know that we were behind or something has gone wrong due to your…incompetence." Said the purple wearing Jap-man. 

"Um…well…yes progress is good, Mr. Mishima. Eighty percent of the missing organs have been replaced. He shall be ready for memory alteration before the week is out. Didn't something go wrong with the first one?" 

"Doctor, I'll worry about company affairs. You just worry about completing the project. Letting you use this equipment is costing me more than the estimates first showed so don't mess up. Your life is depending on this, think of it as your grand achievement. You complete the project, and then you can consider yourself the leader in the field of genetic regeneration. If you fail…well, I hope you have insurance for your wife and children." Then Jap-man left and the bottom of the tube opened, sucking me into darkness. 

_Every night I fall again._

Again I woke, finding myself looking into a wall-mirror. From what I could tell, I was strapped into a metal chair…or device; it didn't really look like a chair. It was too big; wires and lights all over it, leading into the walls. Then I heard Jap-Man's voice over a loud speaker. 

"Finally awake I see, good. Now we can begin the process. We are about to turn your mind into a clean slate. You are going to feel some pain, but you should survive the process. Don't worry though; you wont remember a thing once we are done. Doctor, you may begin." 

There was a buzzing sound, followed by beeping. Then a device came down and settled on my head, two prongs very near my eyes. I couldn't tell what they were at first, but that first jolt of energy from them awakened my mind…they were something that delivered pain. It went on for hours I think, the continuous blasts of energy from that machine nearly throwing me out of my seat if it weren't for the restraints. Once it ended, I collapsed into sleep…my body and mind completely taxed. 

Awake once more, this time the room was dark…silent. I couldn't remember anything…all I could do was sit staring forward into the darkness…my head throbbing with pain. 

_Don't talk of love, the shadows burn._

Then the lights came on and a man dressed in a purple suit came in. He was smiling, his hands clasped together as he came closer. He looked Japanese… 

"Well now, don't remember anything do you? That will all change soon. You have done very well; you have made it this far. Soon you will go even farther. Just think about it, everything you know and loved is now gone from your memory…as if it never even existed in the first place." 

_Murmuring me away from you._

The man in purple left, a device coming down on my head…two prongs near my eyes. Then the burning white light filled my eyes, causing me to jerk in my seat. I learned everything there. I learned how to fight, how to survive, how to kill, how to handle weapons, how to serve. I learned who my master was; I learned to obey. For days this went on, a continuous ballet of waking and burning pain. Learning to speak only when spoken to, learning what to say and what not to say. 

_ Don't talk of words that never were._

Once the weeks of searing pain had ended, my master had a name, my creator had a name, my employer had a name…Kazuya. It was then that I was allowed to leave that seat. I was given the suit I wear even today, and the sword I use. He was standing in front of me on that day, along with the doctor…looking his prize over. 

"Doctor…is that normal?" 

"What are you talking about, Mr. Mishima?" 

"His eyes…they are completely white…why is that? This didn't happen with the first test subject…he just lost an eye…but this ones are gone…like they were burned away" 

_ The end is all that's ever true._

"Well…I think it's just a side effect from the memory alteration. These things are still in the experimental stages, it's uncertain what will happen. As you have requested, he answers to you and only to you…and we have implanted the program for him to destroy Test Subject number one on sight." 

"Excellent doctor, you may leave now. Take the team with you and take a break, you deserve it. Today, you become a legend." There was something behind Kazuya's grin as he looked at the doctor. Then the man left and I was alone with my master. 

"Phantom…I have a task for you. The doctor…you see…he knows too much, as well as his team. I want you to get rid of them for me. You can do this cant you? I just can't have blood spilt all over my hands with the cameras around…with you doing it, we can write it off as a freak accident. You understand don't you? Now go." And so I left with my sword in hand, moving faster than the normal human could detect. 

The doctor and his entire team were walking down the hallway…it was the perfect time for the kill. They had nowhere to run, the first two didn't even realize what happened to them…even as their blood splattered the walls and their colleagues. Then the others turned to find me, already moving for them. The next one tried to plead with me, screaming at me. 

"No! No please don't! We helped you! It was all Kazuya's idea! You have to believe me! Please!! Plea…" He never did finish his sentence. 

_ There's nothing you can ever say._

The others fell to my blade with ease; the blood so thick the last was sliding on it. He was the doctor that was always talking to Kazuya…the one who sold my life away. I didn't know why at the time, but I felt overcome with rage for this man. During my rage he had managed to pull a gun from some hidden place. It was too late though; my sword was already in flight. It caught his wrist just as the pistol leveled with me. The man screamed out in pain, cursing me…and then he did something unexpected. He charged at me, threw his life away at me. My sword was ready, coming back up the way it came…the man was now two. 

_ Nothing you can ever do._

The force of my blow had thrown him into the air, it rained red in that hallway…I had been reborn. Then the sound of clapping, twisted laughter coming from behind. Kazuya was there, standing as if the mass of bodies before him were a normal thing. 

"Yes! Well-done Phantom. Can you feel it? Can you feel the power inside you? Use it!! Use the rage I have given you! It makes you perform! It makes you kill! It's who you are now. I will have uses for someone like you…the military wont get you just yet. No, I have a few other things in mind for you." 

_Still every night I burn._

I was taught how to use my powers shortly after that; Kazuya's top mages supervised me. I knew how to kill, that was easy enough, but learning to harness my true potential was another thing. The constant magic casting was taxing to say the least. Sometimes I lost control, killing one of the trainers on accident. 

"How can you let this thing run loose here?!! He's killed six trainers already! Three of who were on your top magical defense council. We can't train him how to use magic if he keeps blasting holes in the trainer's chests with mana balls! Can't you keep him under control or something? He doesn't even say he's sorry, he just walks away like nothing happened!!" The man turned and looked to me then. 

We were standing in Kazuya's office, the man was complaining to Kazuya and looking at me from time to time. Kazuya didn't seem to pay him much attention as he glanced over the various reports that were given to him. 

"Mages can be replaced, just as you can if you yell again. Now, how is his progress?" 

The man's body rose and fell as he sighed, turning to me once more before looking back to Kazuya, I had a feeling he didn't like me. 

"He is a quick learner…quicker than I have ever seen. There is a lot of power within him, and he is able to do some things that I've never seen anyone able to do before. He…manipulates the magical powers and uses them for other purposes…I don't know how to explain it…He posseses a form of ESP…and combined with his martial arts training…he's the perfect assassin. It will be a shame once you hand him over to the military." 

"I wont be handing him over to the military. It seems Phantom lacks the certain… strength they are looking for. Typical for the CAS and UCAS governments, they want the huge hulking soldier figure. We will have to start another project. Is there any sign of the first test subject?" 

"Not yet, but I'm keeping my eye on it. He seems to have gone underground. It's strange really, I didn't think you gave him that much brains. But then again you didn't plan for the emotions did you? Lets hope this new process you did works for this one. We don't need an accident like last time. I lost too many good men because of that walking mass of flesh and metal." 

"I am quite aware of what happened, I don't need you reminding me of it. Phantom won't turn on us, we have made sure of that. I have complete control of him. And now that the military doesn't want him, I can use him for my own purposes. Revive what's left from the old files on the creation of the first one; we will use that along with a few added steps we used for Phantom. The military will get their 'super soldier' and we will keep him." 

The man nodded and began to head for the door, stopping only a few steps from his original position against Kazuya's desk. "I've been wondering…you don't plan on breeding him, do you? I mean just one is enough, just think of what could happen with another one of him." 

Kazuya merely looked at the man, something hidden behind those eyes as usual. "You know we can't breed him till we find a woman with the correct DNA pattern. My choice to breed him is nothing for you to worry about, or did you forget that?" 

_Still every night I scream your name._

Correct DNA pattern? What was he talking about? I was able to provide children? But what did it mean exactly…this confused me greatly. I didn't give it much thought then. So I wouldn't just work with anyone, I had to find someone that I was made for? 

The man left without another word, and Kazuya looked at me for what seemed like hours. There was no telling what was going on inside that twisted maze he called a mind. It wasn't until he turned to the great window overlooking the city did he finally speak to me. 

"I can control the world by using you. Do you realize that? Don't you realize the power an army of your offspring would have? It's just a matter of finding the compatible mate for you. What do you say Phantom? Just who would you like as your play toy?" 

I looked at him for the longest moments, contemplating, reasoning. Why did he ask this? I didn't even know what he was talking about in the first place. 

"Play toy, master? What do you mean?" 

"Who would you like to frag? With the jobs I'm going to send you on, you are going to need something to help you relax and take away all that stress." 

"I don't think about such things, master." At least I didn't at the time, not till years later and when I first saw you…my Aurora… 

"Hah, of course you don't!" Kazuya turned then, placing his hands lightly on the desk before him. "I know what you want, blood. I've got some of it for you. Tomorrow night, one of the heads of the Renraku Corporation will be arriving at the airport and then on to the corporation building. Your job is to make sure he never makes it. Be sure to take out any resistance, and use any means necessary…the heads of Shiawase Incorporated want this man…eliminated." 

And so I left, retreating to the room that was given to me and to prepare for the next night. Meditation was my tool, used to clear my mind of all the thoughts I had earlier. To be prepared for the battle to come, and be one with my inner spirit. 

_Every night I burn._

I awoke the next night, ready and willing to kill. My things were gathered, my tools, my weapons of destruction. I left the building and started moving toward the ambush point. It was somewhere in the rundown part of town, it seemed like the best place for attack. A narrow strip of road, buildings all around and no one who would really care if a bunch of dead men were left lying on the street. 

I waited for hours, crouched in the same spot on the rooftop of some crumbling and decayed building. The populous was sparse, there would be few witnesses…innocents…I wasn't told to kill them, they would live. Lights suddenly illuminated the street…my target had come. I waited till the single sedan came close to my position before springing the trap, jumping across to the other building and dropping my charges. Bright flashes, the bombs melting the very asphalt they landed on, suddenly lit the night sky. The hole now in the sedan's path was far too large to be crossed, and now the men began to appear from within the depths of the back seat. There were six in all, carrying automatic weapons of some sort. Then came my descent, the only sound that of my blade as it sung threw the cool night air. 

_Every night the dream's the same._

The first man's head fell from his body, completely severed at the shoulders. The sickening sound it made once it hit the ground must have alerted the others as they turned to me and opened fire. I hesitated then, still admiring my work…a mistake on my part. The repetitive sound of machinegun fire surrounded me, pinging off the broken streetlights, breaking any unbroken windows. I didn't notice when the bullets finally met their mark, not till they struck a blue field before me. Was this part of my power? I wasn't about to make the same mistake again; they wouldn't get the drop on me. 

The next volley of hellfire missed completely as I leapt high into the air, coming down on the nearest of the remaining five men. I could almost hear the slice of the blade, the splintering of bone and flesh as they gave way to the force of my blow. Another mistake. Once the next blast hit, the blue shield shattered around me. The force of the psychic feedback caused me to stagger, my vision blurring for an instant…just enough time to allow one of the men to score a hit. The first bullet struck me in the shoulder, the second and third making their mark into my left bicep. This caused my vision to return; only the men were now demons. The fabled oni my mother used to tell me about. My mother? When did I have a mother…how did I know about the oni? The next burst caught me in the abdomen, causing me to double over in shock. I myself didn't feel the pain, but I knew it was there. 

I was surrounded, the demons coming for me…one stepping from the car. Arrogance was always a being's worst enemy, and they had fallen into it. Once they neared close enough I sprang to my feet, my eyes enclosed in a red haze, charging forward with inhuman speed, my sword cutting a bloody swath into my enemy…my demons. When my vision returned to normal, I stood at the end of the battlefield…my sword dripping with the red ichors of the fallen. The scavengers had already darted from their hiding places among the alleyways and shadows, picking at the goods and taking what they could. I began my journey back to the place of my origin with someone named 'mother' on my mind. 

_Every night I burn…waiting for my only friend._

"So just how did you get damaged in the first place?" Rang Kazuya's voice in my spinning head. "A multimillion Nuyen creation and you get this damaged by a bunch of hired thugs??" 

"I was caught off guard…the street was full of rubble…I slipped on a rock. It won't happen again." I couldn't tell him that I thought about my mother could I? He would just throw me into that machine again…a place I didn't want to visit once more. 

"You slipped on a rock…you are a highly trained genetically created assassin and you trip on a rock?? Do you realize how much money its going to take to repair the damage to you because you slipped on a rock?! You fool!! Don't you realize that your body isn't don't yet!? Doctor, don't use any painkillers; I want you to remove the bullets and repair the damage so he can feel it. Maybe then he will learn to watch his step." Kazuya left the room and I was strapped down to the table before I had a chance to react. The pain was too much to bear, but it was worth it to retain the thought that was so important to me for some unknown reason…mother. 

_Every night I burn…waiting for the world to end._

I wasn't able to use my left arm for a month. The doctor did his job well, causing more damage removing the bullets than the damage I had received when the bullets hit. He ended up having to repair the original damage and the damage he dealt to me, purposely fraggin up the operation on several tries. I swore he would pay for that humiliation once I had a chance to pay the debt of pain back. That entire month I sat in my quarters, in silent meditation… just trying to piece together what the word 'mother' had to do with me. I found no answers, so instead I set to repairing my broken soul from the pain that had been inflicted on it. Once again, Kazuya called for me and I went like a loyal lapdog. 

"You called for me, master? 

"Yes Phantom. How is the arm? I trust everything is in place? You haven't slipped on any rocks yet, have you?" There was the same look I saw in his eyes the first time…something dark…something hidden. 

"I am fully healed and at your command, master." 

"Ah yes, good. Now, we are moving to Seattle. The new branch of Mishima Corporations is moving there, and it seems the competition is high. A person with your skills will be most useful there. Seeing as how you don't have anyone to say goodbye to, we will be leaving tonight." 

And that was that. We left for Seattle…in what used to be called America. Once there we were driven to the new corporate building. Everything was in place and ready for the new opening. Whilst Kazuya entertained the numerous guests that attended the opening party, I was ordered to stay in one of the many storage rooms. And so there I waited, hours upon hours till the party ended and I was allowed to leave my place of storage. Then my life began once again. For months the missions were routine, kill someone, get something, and destroy something important. It was all the same till one day when he called me to his office. 

"Well Phantom, it seems we have a leak. Somehow the information we saved on your creation was leaked and now Renraku is using it for their own profit. They have a secret lab located in the UCAS…you will be sent there for a number of months…I want the lab taken off the map and all information destroyed. We don't need more of you running around. A rotorcraft will be waiting for you, you are to leave tonight." 

I left without a word; it wasn't my place to ask such things. The flight took several hours till we came to our destination. Just on the border where the UCAS meets the Sioux Nation. I wasn't told where the laboratory was. I supposed no one knew. So it was up to me to find where exactly it was located. First I had to make my way through the forest area and get to the nearest city where I could stay. I was going to be here for months after all. It took days to reach the nearest city, during that time I sat and thought while watching the fire. I remember sitting there one time, and remembering the secret biochemical lab I burned to the ground. How the stupid frags that sold the stuff to children burned in the windows. To this day, the fire always reminds me of that event… 

Once in the city, I removed the mask and stealth gear. It might seem strange for a ninja just walking around and I risked the chance of being spotted or reported by my target. Lucky Kazuya provided me with a credstick with unlimited usage range. Though I only needed my basic weapons, a few extra grenades and an apartment wouldn't hurt. I remained in the city for three months to gather information through espionage and various other forms of footwork. Then the time came, I was ready for my attack. I can remember standing in that small, partially decorated bathroom…staring into the cracked mirror…no regrets. Then my face was covered with the mask I knew so well, it was time. 

_"Just paint your face", the shadows smile,_

The laboratory wasn't far from the city, set into the side of a cliff. Several teams of Red Samurai guarded the installation. From the many tales I heard in the local bars of the city, most runners didn't want to cross one of these things. I had no choice; I would succeed or die trying…thus the purpose of my life. 

Getting in was the easy part, the first part always is. I hid myself under one of the armoured vehicles that traveled back and forth form the lab to the city. Once past the front gate, the vehicle came to a stop inside a hanger-type building. A few moments of waiting and I was able to move, get into the ventilation system, and begin down into the main lab. The ventilation system was a labyrinth of tight metal walls and turns. During all my footwork, I had managed to acquire a map of the entire system…so I knew where I was going, basically. I didn't go for the lab at first; I used the ventilation system to key points where I placed my bombs. I'd need a distraction when the time came to leave, and something strong enough to put the place out of commission. After the charges were set, I moved to the point I had marked on the map…the point where I would leave the ventilation shaft. Deeper and deeper I went till I came to that point. 

_Slipping me away from you_

I descended into a four-way intersection, empty of course. The stark white walls deeply contrasted against my black stealth suit…as well as the crimson armour of the Red Samurai that had just turned the corner. I was trying to be silent, so I removed my sword from its sheath. The Samurai mimicked my moves, beginning to advance slowly as I did so. And there we were, standing apart from each other…the Ninja and the Samurai. The white walls melted away, revealing old peasant houses with their thatched roofs. We were standing on a dirt road, an empty dirt road. The moon was at my back, stretching my shadow and blending it with that of the Samurai's. It wasn't until the wind blew wayward strands of grass passing by my face did we charge forward and lock blades…a bad idea. The Samurai had the strength of ten men and he quickly overwhelmed me in that one moment. I leapt backward, breaking the lock and stanching any attack he may have used. The Samurai may have proved his dominance in the field of strength, but I had one advantage over him…I knew his technique. I let him get in close then, let his blade fall, and struck as his blow deflected off the shimmering blue field around me. There was my chance, my blade cut upward into the middle of the Samurai, splintering his ceremonial battle armour and exposing the flesh beneath. The Samurai fell, the clunking of his armour the only sound that broke the silence after my killing blow. Once the blood began to run, the town around me faded away back into the white walls of the hallway. I glanced down, and the dead body at my feet sparked where my blade had met it, a mix of blood and wiring protruding from the gaping wound in his chest. 

It was then I noticed the feeling of something against my back. My better judgment told me it was the end of a gun. Had I been caught off guard again? Why did the visions plague me? Those thoughts floated around in my mind even as I backed into the gun, one foot sent back and kicking at the elbow of the arm that held the gun. The weapon was sent flying into the air, the now exposed arm taken in one hand and used to flip the body behind me. I used my foot to snap his neck. I turned and noticed yet another Red Samurai dead at my feet. These guys weren't as bad as the stories told. Then the footsteps from down the hall came to my attention and I ducked into one of the unexplored halls, I was in no mood for another confrontation. 

_"Oh it doesn't matter how you hide_

I thought I was safe, but that thought suddenly disappeared as three Red Samurai rounded the corner and faced me…as if they had known where I was the entire time. 

_We'll find you if we're wanting to._

There was no time to waste, no room for error. I flung my sword into the first Samurai, the weapon catching him in the gut even as I produced a mana bolt and launched it toward the next; the force of the blast ripping through his chest and sending the body back into the hall he had come from. I then jumped at the nearest wall, using it to magnify my own force as I ricocheted off of it and into the last standing Samurai foot first. The walking red toy fell to the floor with that one blow. I took his katana; my own sword was sparking with the life of the one it had been used to kill. Back into the hallway I went, the dead body of the Red Samurai hit with the mana bolt sliding down the now bloodied wall, his light green cybereyes fading completely. 

_So slide back down and close your eyes_

There was an elevator waiting, it must have brought all those Samurai here. So I did the only thing I could do, I took the elevator down. It took me where I needed to go, opening up into a large room. The walls were lined with vat tubes, and there standing at a consol was a man in a lab coat. He didn't last long, it was easy enough to sneak up on the man and knock him out with the butt of my blade. 

_And sleep awhile-you must be tired."_

I began to set my charges, making sure that the blast would destroy every tube and all of the equipment. I only took one glance into the tubes, the figure inside reminded me of myself when I had been like this. The feeling sent a chill down my back, causing me to back away…just in time to see someone out of the corner of my eye. In reaction to that, a grenade was sent in the direction of the person, the flames engulfing them just as they tried to speak. 

"Wait, I just want to tal…" 

I moved to examine the body, the only thing that remained was a charred and torn torso, the legs were missing as was an arm and nearly half the body. Still…the thing talked to me. 

"W-wait…ack…I just…wanted to…to talk…with you…" The skin cracked around his lips as it spoke, one empty white eye staring up at me. 

"Are you the soldier created with my data?" I had to know if I attacked the right thing. 

"C-c-created…yes…just…like you…but…you…are just a puppet…we…we are free…" I could tell it was dying. 

"A puppet?? What are you talking about?" 

"Memories…all memories…let me…show you…" The charred mass seemed a bit calmer now, its only hand coming to rest against my forehead…my first mind meld. He showed me so many things in that short time, everything seemed like a lie. All the missions I had been sent on, all tricks. The fire at that biochemical laboratory…it was all a lie, what I had really burnt down was an orphanage…the people I remember seeing burning in the windows…they were children…workers…helpers…everything I had done, was used to further Kazuya's empire…not humanity. 

Once the meld was broken I reeled back from the charred mass, holding my head, silently screaming. Lies??! All lies??!!! I had been tricked into killing those people! Their blood was on my hands! It was all Kazuya's fault! He had done this to me! He had tricked me! I wouldn't blow this place up…I would hunt him down…hunt him down and kill him! I ran from the room, back up the elevator shaft and into the ventilation systems. I was driven by bloodthirsty rage; it took no time to leave the compound. Just as I headed into the tree line, the entire cliff exploded, sending a shockwave far enough to meet me and throw me off my feet. 

_Every night I burn_

When I awoke, days must have passed, but there was only one thought on my mind…kill Kazuya. I walked my battered and bleeding body all the way back to Seattle…it took days to travel the distance. Then I stood at the doors to the Mishima Corporation. Once inside, the receptionist tried to stop me…but my blade thought otherwise. I fought my way to the top, to Kazuya's office…cutting through security team after security team, the halls ran red with blood. I barged into that room, pouncing on Kazuya even as he was with his hookers. They all left as I screamed in his face, holding onto his exposed neck. 

"Why!!! Why did you trick me! I trusted you!! I believed in you!" That didn't last long, the next thing I knew I was flying across the room and back into the hall I came from. My body wouldn't move, all I could do was watch as Kazuya came closer to me…his body outlined in a twisting purple haze. 

"You are going to wish…" there was that same darkness I saw behind his eyes, even as he sprouted wings and his skin phased into a purplish pigment. A single vertical, slanted eye opened on his forehead, a third eye. It glared at me with soulless malice. "….That you had never done that." 

I somehow survived the fight. Everything blacked out as he came closer, and I found myself lying broken in an alley. It took several months to recover from the damage done…after that, I set out to find the one that was meant for me. 

_I set out to find you, Aurora._

_I set out to find you._   


* * *   
**Go to the Previous Part******

**Go to the Next Part**


	3. Blood and Water

Jade Tears   
_Part 3: Blood and Water_   
  
"Mommy…I hafta peeee." The last word was stretched out for emphasis. Lucia pulled on my ear to get me to wake up. My eyes felt like two pieces of sandpaper as my eyelids slid slowly open. I rubbed my temple with one hand. I didn't understand what I'd just seen. What were his memories doing in my head? Were they his or was it just some dream sent to plague me with these thoughts?? I knew that it could only be his thoughts. 

"Moooommmmmmy!!" Lucia balled her hands together and did the pee pee dance. "I have to peeeeeeee!" The consequence of giving her a glass of water earlier was to get up about two hours later and take her to the poddy. There was no rest for the wary. I shook my head to try and keep the dream clear in my mind. I HAD to remember it. I knew it was important. He was trying to tell me something. He was trying to lead me to him. I took Lucia's hand and led her to the bathroom. After she was done, she hugged me and trotted off to bed. I shut the light off and my body went in auto mode to find a place to go back to sleep. It was too much for my brain to try and sort out. It needed the rest. I collapsed wherever and returned immediately back to sleep.   


* * * 

It was a regular day, just like hundreds of others. Wake up, dress, shower, watch the tech channel, make a salad. But things were different than before. Ever since Phantom left that one time I refused him, I'd taken residence in his apartment, basically making it my own. Half my slag was moved into a back room already. Boy he would be mad when he found it all here, the elf paraphanalia, the underwear, the cheap stripper's clothes, and all the comic books. If he came back. I just couldn't stand to live with Nat anymore. It was too much stress. I had nowhere else to go but here. Now she had her own children. She had her own life, and I didn't feel like a part of it anymore. I figured I'd leave her to her own harmony. She had someone else to look after her now. 

And…it made me sick to see them together. 

But somehow I was convinced by Nat and her new sasquatch of a husband, Ghost, to come here…to the NAN. Native American Nation. It was pleasant despite my hesitation. Everyone was here, even people we'd only Ran with a couple times. Neo I remembered, he was the friendly combat mage we met a while back. There was an Orc here too, who I finally recognized from before. He was the Orc who tried to approach us in the alley, who got us involved with that gang incident a while back. I wasn't too happy to be around him when I did recognize him, but he turned out to be somewhat nice for an Orc. His name was Rav. We all sat around the table telling exaggerated stories about our Runs and dirty jokes, while Ghost made some soy burgers on the grill. I found it best to keep my attention on the conversation. Rav actually made me laugh a couple of times. 

Things were actually peaceful. It was a pleasant fiction. 

Suddenly there was an explosion that had us all up in our seats. Orange heat flared around us, scraping our faces. Gunfire rang out from nowhere at all making us instinctively duck and cling to the ground. Nat ripped open the back of the Sedan and threw us what weapons we'd brought. To me, my sword and submachine gun, to everyone else, handguns and rifles. Even on vacation, we were locked and loaded by force of habit. Gunfire exploded around us again, ringing loudly in my ears. I scanned the area, the heat of the explosion flickering brightly in my thermoptic vision, and found nothing. The gunfire intensified, pressing us back into the forest. I retreated with the others back into the trees of the NAN. It was the only direction to flee in. 

The night animals buzzed and chirped around us as we pressed deeper into the foliage. I kept a hand on Neo's arm so he wouldn't lose his way. He was the only one of us not wired like a toaster oven. It was a lovely night in the reserve. I knew we could never have a decent vacation. It was pissing me off. Could Aurora have a moment of peace?? Noooo…the Gods must hate me. I saw Nat wave to me in my night vision. All Clear. Then I saw Rav stop in front of us. He saw something up ahead. I creeped up beside him, hugging the bushes. There was a clearing up ahead with a Panzer parked in the center of it. Around it little green lights danced and bobbed strangely in the night vision. I switched to thermo and magnified the area within my vision. I dawned on me that the lights were the nodes to figures that were walking away from the hovercraft. We waited till it was all clear. We crept ever closer to the clearing to inspect it. It was too quiet. The bugs had stopped buzzing. My hands twitched slightly a couple times as I activated my wired reflexes. My fingers tightened on the grip of my submac. 

The loud voice of a man nearly made me jump out of my skin. 

"Come out…surrender now." I scanned the area for a source, but could just barely make out the hefty figure of the man standing near the craft. It was too dark and my headware couldn't seem to lock onto his heat signature. He seemed muffled on night vision. They had to have some kind of stealth. If they were around us, we couldn't see them. I had that sudden sinking feeling I'd had for months. Something told me they were all around us, waiting to strike. What choice was left? I hate compliance. 

I let the gun loosen in my grip and swing around to dangle by my index finger. Maybe if they figured us as noncombatant and we told them we did not mean to trespass in this area, they'd let us go? "Don't shoot!" I said as I walked out into the clearing, arms held high over my head, the submac dangling like an ornament. Before I reached the clearing, something the man said made me stop in my tracks. 

"Come out, my Little Butterfly." 

It couldn't be. I started to swing the gun around in my hand, my fingers tightening in the grip. My arm was suddenly wrenched and twisted behind me. I grunted in pain and squirmed around to see who my aggressor was. I only caught a glimpse, but that was enough to make my blood run cold. It just couldn't be. That face, I'd feared it all my life. I'd feared the smile and the curves of it that were carved into my memory. Yet there it was, jaded and pasty white….dead. A black, lifeless tongue emerged from his mouth and brushed the skin of my neck. It dragged across the nape of my neck in a perverse kiss. I screamed and tried to rip away from the ghost, the monster. I'd killed him!! He was dead!! I KILLED HIM!!! He twisted my arm again and half dragged, half threw me against the side of the Panzer. My face crunched against the metal, deadening my screams of fury and confusion. 

You don't understand. He was dead and I killed him!!! The thoughts kept repeating as my mind kept not comprehending how a dead man could walk, how a dead man could smile at me, how a dead man could throw me into the side of a hovercraft!!! I tried to bring my free arm up in a punch, but he yanked me back like a rag doll and bashed me against the side of the craft again and again and again, then let go of my arm. My head bounced back from it one last time as I slid to my knees, my lips sticking begrudgingly to the metal. My face slid down the side and I collapsed to my knees, my cheek leaving a crimson trail of blood down the black metal. Incomprehension still flittered through my tired brain as consciousness flickered in and out. Off and on I heard the screams of violence and a firefight. Off and on. He was dead because I killed him… My head fell slack against the cool metal. It was almost a welcome coolness, it felt nice against all the hot blood that I could feel on my face. Then I blacked out to the tattered sounds of screaming. 

When I awoke, I had the strange sensation that I was standing up without using my legs. I rotated my head around in an effort to find the strength to open my eyes. I didn't want to unless it was to wake up from this dream. Finally they did open and I gazed upon another new horror. 

It was Glenn. It couldn't have been him, but there he was, standing casually with one leg propped up on the back of the couch. We were in the cabin and he was just standing there smiling at me. His skin was pasty white, half of his face a black construct of metal and wiring. I remembered how he'd looked when the Lone Star had taken me into the morgue to identify his body. I'd seen him then, his body barely in one piece. I saw his face, a lifeless white tinged with the blue of death. I'd touched his skin and found it colder than the look he gave me now. David stood off behind him, that very same smile engraved upon his features. He was a hulking figure, like the one I'd known before, only pieced together with bits of black metal and wire. I prayed to God, if there was one, to just let me wake up. This was all some sick dream, some twisted nightmare. 

I didn't wake up from it. 

I found my self pinned by giant arms that were all too familiar. It was Ghost's arms. The conclave I felt against my back told me he had an immense hole in his chest, where once a steel beam had been impaled through it. All the ghosts of the dead seemed to gather around me. It had to be a dream, but it wasn't! I strained against Ghost's grip in an effort to release myself, but all my efforts proved useless. Glenn laughed at that, an empty, soulless laugh. He came close to me and put a clawed finger on my cheek. I winced as he pressed down and traced a bloody path along the tattoo that marked my jawline. Tears of anguish choked my vision. This couldn't be the Glenn I'd known, the sweet elf, my little brother, my best friend. I clutched hopelessly at something in my pocket. Glenn reached down and took it from my hand. It was the picture of me and him at the club, posing with drunken happy smiles that were lost now forever. The investigators had given it to me at the morgue. His glazed eyes concentrated on it for a moment before a voice not quite his spoke out. 

"Ah..this…I will always keep it near to my heart." He crumpled the picture in his hand and then put it in his mouth. He chewed on it slowly then gulped it down without a word. My heart fell at that. If there was any humanity in him, it was lost at that moment. Ghost covered my mouth with one big loping hand to mute the yells of anger that emerged from within me. David approached me now, very entertained by all that had transpired. He stood face to face with me, looming just in front of my eyes. 

"Ah how it is refreshing to see and hear you again, my Little Butterfly." He put a finger on my cheek, wiping some of the blood off. He sucked it grotesquely from his thumb and returned to smiling. "I've waited so long for this,…to see you again." He gave an unspoken order to the dead Ghost that held me and the behemoth began to squeeze the anger out of me with his great arms. I dug my claws into his skin with every bit of strength I could muster, but to little effect. I finally went limp as my body started to give way underneath the pressure. He finally released me and I fell into the waiting arms of David. He twirled me around before I could regain my composure and gripped my neck in a sleeper hold. He began to drag me across the room, my flailing legs knocking over lamps and crashing against table legs. I dug my heels across the carpeting in an effort to stop him as he dragged me up the stairs. His vice grip held and his other hand kept me from screaming. This just couldn't be happening. Let me wake up, please! 

I fell to the ground hard as he dropped me, then quickly yanked my arm and tossed me into the room before I could stand. I crashed into a table, the edge of it digging into the small of my back. The door clicked as he locked it. I hurriedly rolled around and threw the table at him with all the anger that gave me strength. He swatted it aside like it was nothing. I frantically felt around for anything I can use, any weapon, anything that could save me as he advanced like a lion on a lamb. I grasped a lamp and sent it flying at him. The crystal shattered everywhere but still he came. I sent everything at him, the chair, the nightstand, the cheap books, the comm, but still he came. Finally, I broke off the bedpost and wielded it like a bat. I swung it at him foolishly and it splintered against his forearm. I threw the broken piece at him and tore off the other bedpost, which met the same fate. I looked around, the room was in pieces, there was nothing left to throw, nowhere else to run. I glared at David, ensnared and angered. I was an animal trapped in a corner. 

I slid my hand razors out to their full extensions. I wasn't finished yet. And I'll be damned if I ever let him take control of me again!!! I clawed at him viciously, trying desperately to cut anything, to stop his advance anyway I knew how. He took the blows lightly and caught me by the arms. I jerked one free and clawed him across the half of his face not covered by black cybernetics. He stared at me dully for a few seconds, that same sadistic smile plastered on his face. I remember the last time I'd done that to him. It was the other side I'd raked with my fingernails, the side now covered by metal. Inhuman black blood oozed out of the wounds and dribbled down his face. The black ichor stuck to my blades. He regained his hold on my arm, shook me senseless and slammed me into the wall again. The white plaster crackled where I hit it, facefirst. I bounced off it and fell to all fours, ready to puke. My head was spinning from the trauma. Sour bile worked its way up from my bowels to my throat. I coughed heavily and brought a twitching hand up to my face. I could already feel it beginning to swell and bruise. Whatever blood was on my hands, most of it wasn't his. 

In that instant, all the power I'd ever possessed over him when I killed him, all the freedom I thought I'd gained…. was gone. He raised me up by the neck, choking me, and then threw me across the room. I landed on the bed unevenly, beaten, broken…powerless. I choked on my own spit and blood, I began to weep and yell, but a hand came down on my throat and clamped it. David's pale face hovered over mine. He put a clawed finger to my lower lip and sliced it down the middle. 

"Shhhh…." He whispered to me, his face ever the mask of a smile. He never liked it when I cried, that was the first rule I learned. I was choked quiet as he cut the light armor away from my body. My chapped lips moved in silent protest, but things were inevitable now. His weight pressed me down into the bed, and I shut my eyes as whatever cold organ he'd been recreated with penetrated my body. My mind reverted back into a pattern that'd been conditioned into it so long ago, over the years. 

I was sixteen again, or fifteen, or fourteen, or thirteen. I was his special little doll, his private possession, his Little Butterfly. If he wanted my hair a certain way, it was cut and made that way. My flesh was manipulated however he wanted it to be. I was just a little doll; a little lump of clay cast out by the world and picked up by him. David would visit me at night after the other children were asleep. When it'd happen, I'd watch my soul fly up there on the ceiling with the peculiar shadows that were always cast there. I'd lie there and watch them flutter around like dark butterflies. My soul would dance around with them detached from my watching body. After he was finished he'd lie on top of me and talk to me, almost sweetly. I'd feel the rise and fall of his chest and hope that one day that breathing might suddenly stop. 

"You are beautiful." 

"Really?" My robotic answers always followed. 

"Your hair, silk roses. Such beauty…" 

"I never noticed." 

"..never wasted. You'll always be mine. You're beautiful, just like those butterflies." 

"Yes, I like them. They're pretty…" 

My body arched against his in an effort to find escape, but found none. A wave of pleasurable pain passed through me, making my very soul shudder. My hands clenched tight, my own claws digging into my palms. I'd almost let myself slip into that pattern again. He'd uncovered my mouth, but now my screams were short and ragged. I was running out of breath to scream, out of the will to live. The nightmare still hadn't ended. I'd sworn to myself I'd never let it happen again, but it had. It had. It had… There was a crash and a yell, and I was suddenly free of his cold embrace. I laid there, dazed and almost lifeless till another body fell on me. This time it was Rav. He had somehow broken into the room and was trying to fight David. I had sense enough to kick him and spring off the bed. I was almost hyperventilating; I'd just about reached the borderline of total, delirious anger. My hands twitched with the adrenaline and the fury. The Orc was unconscious. David looked to me and saw the animal that peered out from within my eyes. I snapped my face towards him. He was never going to touch me again, one way or the other. He raised a gun and shot it. I heard a high-pitched whistling and noticed the dart sticking out of my arm. I quickly brushed it away, but the damage was done. 

I slowly sank to the floor, the carpeting feeling rough against my sensitive face. I gagged quietly as the tranquilizer took effect. My fading vision caught David's feet as he slowly walked towards me. My eyes rolled back into my head and I fell into darkness once again.   
  
  
  


Drip, drip, drip. It was a calming sound, methodical and simple. I listened to it for a while, unable to open my eyes. They were painfully swollen shut; I could feel the heated, aggravated, bruised skin around them. 

_Drip, drip, drip._

My body felt weightless and suspended. I was floating for what seemed like an eternity till I finally had the strength to force open my eyes. No sooner did I open them then I wish I hadn't. 

_Drip, drip, drip._

I watched the spreading pool of blood, morbidly fascinated until I realized it was my own. My toes barely scraped the ground as my hanging body dangled powerlessly. My arms were chained above me. I was hung up like a piece of meat. Trails of red life twisted around my ankles and trickled between my toes and onto the floor. Drip, drip, drip. I could barely see the words because of the darkness of the room I was in. They were carved into the skin, all over me. All over my legs, all over my stomach, all over my arms, my hands, my breasts. All over me. Little Butterfly. Little Butterfly. Little Butterfly. Everywhere, everywhere Little Butterfly!!! I blinked back salty tears that made the cuts on my face burn. They fell from wide-open eyes. It was a twisted irony for what I had done to David when I'd murdered him. The police had found his body with the words Little Butterfly cut into his chest. 

It was a cold poker plunged into my mind, a freezing arrow. The methodical sound continued. It was the loudest thing I could hear, even above the single long maddening scream that had to have been mine. David said something about art, but I didn't hear him. All I could focus on was the continuous drip, drip, drip. That is when I came to the brink, the razor edge of insanity. I peered into that black abyss and saw two figures standing there. I walked along the edge to see them. 

One was a demon that looked just like me with all of my cybernetic implants, except hers were not implants; hers were a part of her. Her horns were not made of poly alloy, but of bone that protruded from her skull. Blue ram horns curled around her ears crowned by smaller demi-horns that sat atop the center of her forehead. Her white claws were extensions of her fingers, long elegant and deadly. Markings like the tattoos I had adorned her body. Her fangs glinted hungrily, each tip aching for blood. She glared at me with wild, dizzying eyes that darted over my figure with an animal's alertness. 

The other figure was a child, me as I had been before I'd marked my face with the design of the butterfly David had given me the night I'd killed him. She was me before I'd ever been defiled by that monster, living or dead. The child clutched a teddy bear. The same Mr. Bear I used to cuddle to my chest. She looked up at me with her natural jade eyes, those wide, innocent eyes I didn't have anymore and asked, "When's mommy coming home?" 

I looked down at her and answered. "I don't know." 

"When's daddy coming home?" She implored me further. 

"I..I don't know." I leaned over her, my shadow enveloping her small crouching figure. She began to cry. I looked between the demon and the child and back again. I knew that one was the passive insanity and the other was the raving insanity. I could either become a child or an animal. 

I stared down at the child for an introspective moment. She was everything I could never be. She was everything I'd forced myself not to be. It was a path I didn't care to choose. I turned my back on the crying child and stood face to face with the demon. She darted her head quickly from side to side. A low bestial growl sounded from her and her blazing green eyes pierced deep into my own. I knew I could never go back once I chose her path, but I'd rather pass on as a demon then die without ever tasting his blood on my lips. I reached my hand out to her. She raised one clawed hand to mine, the sharp tips brazing my palm. I closed my eyes and I slipped on the razor edge. I could still hear the drip, drip, drip, but it was fading like everything else. I could still see her eyes..burning brightly through the darkness like beacons. I reached for them. 

I fell forward, my hands free and my body weightless. I thought I had finally died, the last drops of my blood spilling out. I was leaning, suspended by nothing, held in a womb of blackness. Slowly, I felt myself swathed in silk. My body was floating, wrapped within a cocoon of blackness and strangely comforted by a warming presence. The hush of running water soothed my senses. Time slowed down and I felt at peace. Cold water ran down my back, making me tremble till finally I was immersed in it. The chill faded to a pleasant warmth that caressed my body and rejuvenated my senses. I could feel myself being pulled out of the void that held me. My eyes gradually focused in on a starry sky. I felt a warm hand on my cheek, and I finally realized I was looking up into Phantom's face. He was like an angel, my saving grace from the black abyss. His halo was the night that enveloped the stream we were in. I closed my eyes and reached out for him, containing him in my arms in the tightest embrace I could manage. 

"You came back." My tears mixed with the lapping stream that ran around us. I never realized how much I missed him until I saw him again. I never realized what my heart was trying to tell me that time he tried to kiss me and I turned my back on him. I never realized it till now. I didn't want to let go so I kept my arms around his neck. All the pain in my body, and my heart, was gone. I dug my head into his chest as if he could block out everything that could hurt me in the world. 

He practically had to pry me away from him when we got out of the stream. I felt a prick in my arm and saw the flash of a syringe. 

"For the pain." He told me as I began to sway with the morphine's effects. I wouldn't have notice if he hadn't said anything. Indeed my body hurt all over. The stream had eased and closed the cuts, but all over my body black and blue bruises patched my skin like a dalmation. I could barely open my left eye; it was so swollen, as was most of my face. I steadied myself slowly as the pain leaked away with the drug. I finally had the presence of mind to look at my surroundings. 

It was not good. Over by the stream I could see Nat and Ghost. He was devoid of his right arm. Rav and Neo were in the stream, reddening the waters with their various wounds. I ran over to Nat's side and kneeled by Ghost. I looked to Nat. She was completely panicked. Circuitry stuck out garishly from the stub of an arm he had left. Flickers of short outs illuminated her face even more. I put my hands on the arm and fiddled with the protruding wires. I'd learned this stuff before, yeah, after all my own wiring needed tweeking every now and again. But all the wires looked the same for some reason. My vision swayed a little. I hesitated a second and then tried rewiring the two main artery connections that'd stop the short-circuiting. A buzzing pain shot through my wrists and I let go. Bad idea. I'd just electrocuted everyone within a 3-foot radius. Nat fiddled with the wires some more and got them to stop sparking. 

I stood up, balancing myself warily. I looked back at Phantom. It was strange, he stood as far as the little clearing would allow away from Ghost. 

"Hey?" I waved to him; I'd almost forgotten why we were here in the first place. When he didn't respond, I ran over to him clumsily. Here I was pleading for that behemoth again. "Can't you help him? Please…" I looked back over to Ghost, he looked more like drek than I did. "If you don't he'll die." He kept his back turned to me and didn't respond for a long moment. 

"Why don't we just leave…" He said in a somewhat cold repressed tone. 

"…what?" I swiveled my head around to chase my juggling vision. He was making less sense than I was under the influence. I shook my head as if he'd just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Because I can't!" I looked back over to Ghost again. If the behemoth died, it'd scar Nat forever. Phantom turned and peered at me, most of his indecisiveness hid by his mask. He looked to Ghost and then back at me again. "Please??" I sounded like a little child asking for a piece of candy. Phantom's moon eyes narrowed at Ghost. I could see that tension building in them again. If he wanted to kill Ghost in that moment, he could have. 

"What would you do for me?" He asked coldly, a tone that didn't seem natural for him in my eyes. Whatever tilted thoughts went through my head, I gathered them all up and put my hands on Phantom's temples. "If you help us, well then, just look for yourself!!" I sent him whatever fractured images of me and him that flitted through my tired brain. Me and him. He and I! He and she! I know what you wanted before and now I know I can give it to you. No regrets, no sins! Just you and I! He grabbed my wrists and removed my hands from his temples. I let go and he stepped past me, releasing my wrists hesitantly. Well, that was, unexpected. I didn't expect that from myself, HAHA!!! It felt good. 

His hands glowed white when they came into contact with his chest. I could see Ghost heave a much needed breathe of air. With that done, Phantom returned to my side and stared at me with those empty eyes of his. The slightest bit of exhaustion wrinkled his brow. "Thank you." I whispered to him, I gave him the sweetest smile that my swollen face could present. 

"Can we go now?" He sounded like an upset child. I shot around as a branch cracked on the other side of the stream. I looked to the bank and saw at least ten of those bobbing nodes. Those creatures were here, the ones that had been with David. David??? Isn't he dead??!??! All of the events came back to me in a flash of remembrance. David's voice rang out all around us again, reinforcing the memories of all that had happened. 

"You're trapped, surrender now and make things…less painless for yourselves." 

I whipped around in a panic noting that the things were on all sides of us! Just beyond the hill leading from our side of the stream David's black form stood at the head of the formation of nodes that cut through the haze. I looked to Phantom with a disbelieving expression stretched across my face. He stood with a hand on the hilt of each sword he carried strapped to his back and thigh, but otherwise he seemed calmer than if he were on a sunday walk. My mouth fell open in confusion at that. We were in deep drek and he was..calm????? I frantically searched around for a weapon and saw a katana winking at me in the pale moonlight. It was the Government Issue one I'd bought from the weapons store Phantom had taken me too. I ended up not having to give my left ear for it after all. I picked it up and leveled it in front of me. Nat must have brought it with her. The katana wobbled with my twitching grip and fragged up senses. Mental note, if I lived through this, buy a reflex trigger. I didn't want to look up at David, if it was him because it COULDN'T be, so I focused on the other figures that lingered in fuzzy blobs in my night vision. The little nodes flickered and the stalemate continued. They held back away for some reason, though they could have overwhelmed us at any moment. 

I looked to Phantom and his calmed self, "If you won't fight,… I will." He looked back to me and blinked a couple of times. I realize that I must have looked ridiculous. I couldn't fight a damned thing in my condition. And I realized it was so drafty because I was quite nude. I looked around and wrapped myself in the wet sheet that was on the grass near the bank. Not much cover, but it's all I had. I saw Rav fly by in my vision. He charged viciously at the figure that couldn't be David, his six hand razors drawn. I heard the sounds of a scuffle and then I saw him fly back to land at Phantom's feet. I leveled the wobbling blade at the figures which seemed to press in just a little bit more at the Orc's attack. Rav jumped to his feet, his short temper lit. He turned to Phantom who gazed at him casually and yelled into his face, "Why won't you fight! You fragging ninja pussy!" 

His movements were lightening fast, causing me to stare at him dumbly again. I saw his white eyes light up with hot anger. In two undetectable movements, he spun the Orc around, while breaking the one arm, then using the momentum of the breaking arm to flip him over onto his back, breaking the other arm with the weight of his own fall. I heard the bones crack…. Rav scooted away from Phantom and went into the stream, the only thing that was keeping us all alive. 

"Time is up!" The nightmare voice yelled again. I saw the nodes swarm in upon us. I looked to Phantom, we were all going to DIE!!!!! He wasn't standing where I thought he'd be, he was already ripping into the enemy, his two swords flashed white crescent paths across things I could barely cut out of the darkness with any of my visions. He flipped back and four of the figures fell, their cut bodies lit up by sparking circuits. I screamed and swung the sword around at one that had almost grabbed me from behind. I caught it across the neck but that only slowed it down for a millisecond. I sprinted back towards Nat, watching as the tide of nodes swarmed everywhere and hoping I wouldn't see David's face among them. A circle of the fallen figures formed around Phantom as he went against the endless tide. In the growing space, I saw him quickly take off one of the packs that had been attached to his belt and throw it in the middle of the creatures. He held up his hand in a peace sign and jumped out of the circle, landing by me. I looked back to the pack he'd left, unsuspecting. Before I could ask what was going on, he swept me off my feet and started running. A flash of bright light stung my eyes and I screamed a curse word. I'd been looking right into it. He kept running and running and running. 

We were free! We had survived that awful night. The bad dream was finally over. It was high time the good dream started. That night he took me back to the apartment that I had usurped. He even carried me to the bed and laid me down upon it with more care than any person had ever treated me with. He rested his hands on me and healed the internal wounds that had made me start to cringe and cough up blood when the morphine wore off. He pulled the covers up around me and made sure I was comfortable. I pulled them close to myself and watched him attentively as he walked across the room, stopped, looked at me, then walked out again. He seemed confused, nervous even! 

A few minutes later, Phantom returned to the room in boxers and stared at me nervously again. I was apparently in his bed and it seemed to me that he was debating whether to sleep next to me or not. I feigned sleep as I watched him through near closed eyes. He was an enigma to me as I watched him, one minute to be so deadly, and the next to be so childlike. I felt him climb into bed next to me. His foot twitched horribly as he tried to go to sleep. I rolled over to look at him and found that he was facing away from me, his back turned. Even now he gave me the choice. It must have been so very hard for him. 

I smiled at the back of his head and slid a foot over his so he'd stop twitching. I gripped his shoulder and rolled him around softly so he'd be facing me. "It's okay.." I smiled to him and returned the kiss he'd given me so many nights ago. "I've seen you…" I caressed his cheek with my fingers. I felt free, I was finally doing something I wanted. I'd found someone I could love, I'd found someone who loved me and didn't try to possess me. He never tried to use me. I kissed him again, more passionately, and he finally started to get the message as he slid towards me and I wrapped him in the silk sheets he'd given me. 

Then it was just he and I, no one else existed in the world. I let him feel the joy I held in my heart at finding someone like him. Every ecstasy of free will that I felt, I gave to him. In giving up my anger, I was liberated. It was complete and total freedom, white waves of passion I'd never thought I'd feel, that I'd thought had been lost to me forever when I was bent to the will of a madman. I'd held it all in too long, my rage, my fury subsided as I felt his breath against my face. I'd been searching for his face all my life, and I'd found it in this white wave. 

In the silence afterwards, we held each other and I slept more peacefully then ever I had. 

In the silence, I was free.   
  


I loud noise jerked me out of my sleep. Always the best dreams are interrupted! I was stretched out on the couch. The tech channel droned on. 

"..and you too can own this upgrade for the amazing price of 60,000 nuyen! And remember, all of our products require a patent of authenticity for all you shady people out there. Tune in at 6pm to see our show on reactionary cyberware! Be there or your fate is meat! " 

I rubbed my eyes and stretched. There was that noise again, an odd thump thump, almost like footsteps stopping and starting. I looked over the couch towards the back of the apartment where the front door was. It was a pool of blackness. I couldn't tell if anyone was there or not. I reached around the side of the couch and unsheathed my katana which had been resting there. It was quiet again as I raised myself and walked cautiously towards the front of the apartment. I cast a glance back towards Lucia's room. The door was cracked how I'd left it. There was a thump at the front again. I blinked and switched my headware several times, night-vision, thermo, and mag picked up nothing at all. 

It was probably just a cat burglar, nothing I couldn't handle. I gripped the hilt of the sword tightly and peered into the kitchen. Nothing there either. I glanced around awkwardly. Something wasn't right. My eyes passed over the front door and I tested the access panel. It was unlocked. A dim hope rose in my heart. The only one who knew the access code besides me was Phantom. Maybe he'd come home?? I increased my stride and walked quickly back into the living room and looked around. There was nothing. I knew he could sneak by me if he wanted to, but why would he do that?? The trid cast strange shadows along the walls of the empty room. I reached over and hit the switch to turn on the lamp. The little bulb lit up the living room. 

I screamed as someone grabbed my hand and took it away from the lamp. I jerked my arm back, hitting the lamp and making it fall over. It broke on the floor and the room was thrown into blackness once again. I spun around at the sound of a familiar low laugh. The trid lost signal, the channel flickered in and out. 

"..your fate..is meat…your fate..is meat….your…fate.." 

The insane shadows danced across his familiar features, his familiar smile. My heart stopped beating in my chest, my breath stuck in my lungs. But my arms moved of their own accord. I swung downward towards David, scraping my blade across his torso. The blade sparked against the black metal that plated across his chest. He wasn't a man anymore; he was a monster of metal born from the shell of a dead man. I swung at him again, this time the katana clanged off of his black cyber-arm. The impact bounced the sword away, making my arms vibrate. He reached out with his other arm and seized my wrist. He twisted my arm behind my back and held it against the direction it was supposed to go. His hand clamped tighter and the bones of my wrist collapsed in on themselves as if they were made of jelly. The sword clattered to the ground, my hand unable to support it. I cursed and screamed. Fury bubbled up from the deepest part of me and slid through the cracks of my sanity. He released my limb and I swung around smashing the backside of my good fist against the side of his head. I sprung back a step, cradling my broken arm. This was happening too fast. 

Nothing was ever enough to phase him. David lashed out at me again, lifting me up in his great arms and throwing me on top of the coffee table. My back shattered the glass in the middle of it. A glint of metal caught my eye too late. He jammed my own sword through the pit of my stomach, through the table and into the floor, effectively nailing me to it. I couldn't speak, I couldn't breathe, I was like a butterfly pinned in a display case. All I could do was choke on my own blood. He kneeled by my side and tucked some loose hairs behind my ear to get them out of my face. I glared at him, stunned and confused, my eyes wide with fear and anger. He stared back. In life his eyes had been dark brown, now they were a dull black faded from their former luster. His left eye was a solid metallic red. 

I spit at him. The knot of blood landed on his cheek and slid down his white face leaving a trail of crimson. I tried to move again, to do anything, but I couldn't feel my legs. All I could do was lie there and watch him. I choked on my words, coughing violently. He put two fingers on my lips and then looked towards the back of the apartment. I half managed a cry of defiance. I knew what was going through his twisted mind. Lucia was back there! I managed to move my hands, but the sword stayed in place keeping me pinned to the table. 

"..nouh….you.can…t" I forced out the gurgling words. David leaned over and kissed me on the chin with his black lips then covered my mouth with his hand. He looked back towards Lucia's room and called out in my voice. 

"Lucia, honey, come out. Mommy needs to talk to you." There were a few seconds of silence, and then Lucia's tiny form emerged from the room. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and found her way into the living room, Phantom's glove gripped in one tiny hand. David sat next to me, crouching like a gargoyle. Lucia stopped in front of him seemingly not noticing me. 

"Hey, you're not mommy." The little elf accused in her child voice. 

"I know…I'm not." David answered. He sat back and crossed his arms, proceeding to talk with her while I watched in horror. If he touched her I'd kill him! Somehow, someway I'd kill him! I'd find a way no matter what it took! My eyes watered with the sheer frustrating anger that boiled my blood. I still couldn't move. I still couldn't speak. My fingers twitched with the nerve impulses that were sporadically sent from my severed spine. 

"Mommy told me not to talk to strangers." Lucia wrinkled her button nose at him, her spikey black hair falling in front of her eyes. 

"I guess you can call me, Grandpa. That seems close enough." David cocked his head, amused by the little elf's rebelliousness. 

"Gwan pa?" Her eyes lit up. "I never had one of those before." She wiped her nose with her arm and began to chew absently on Phantom's glove. I vainly tried to get my body to move, to do anything as I watched him rise to his feet. David offered a hand out to her. 

"I have some friends I know who would love to meet you, Lucia. Especially an 'uncle'." She took his hand, smiling innocently. 

"Those are nice! I never had one of those before either!!" She began to walk with him towards the front of the apartment. I stretched my hand out towards her, unable to stop them. My body just wouldn't listen. My mind was stuck in a prison of flesh. I cried out, struggling against the katana that pinned me down. I couldn't let him take her!! I couldn't!! But still my body didn't work. Hot tears of frustration squeezed from my eyes. 

Lucia's tinkling voice questioned David again, "Will mommy be there?" 

David looked down at her and smiled, "Of course she will. She'll be there very soon." The front door closed behind them and I screamed again. I had to get up!! I had to get up!! I HAD TO GET UP!!!!!   
  


I tore from the nightmare, my body covered in sweat. I could hardly contain my heavy breathing. It was my worst fear. That he'd intrude upon my life again and take what I had left of it. I tried to take a couple of breaths to calm myself. I repeated it over and over to myself. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. I shook uncontrollably for a few seconds till I lie back down and put my hands to my face. I glanced over and saw Lucia curled up in a little ball beside me. Instead of the child coming to sleep with the mommy because she had bad dreams, it was the other way around. She nuzzled her head into my shoulder and clutched the self-same glove in her tiny, yet strong, grasp. I felt relieved that it was really her, and she was there, safe and within my reach. I rubbed her hair affectionately and then laid my head back against the pillow. I watched her all night. She never left my sight. I would never let her be taken. I would never let that nightmare come true. 

***   
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	4. Shadow Play

**Jade Tears**   
_Part 4: Shadow Play_   
  
The next day ran like most of my days had run for the past few months. I called Nat and faked like everything was okay and I would be fine by myself. I didn't need her to baby-sit Lucia for me so I could go on a night on the town. Her daughters, Mackenzie and Sasha, scared me and I didn't want Lucia anywhere near them. Lucia would stay home with me. She wasn't old enough by legal standards to put into a pre-school. She was only two months old, and she had the look and intelligence of a five-year-old. So I stayed with her and played simple games. One of her favorites, which scared the crap out of me, was a card game. 

I'd hold up a card with a picture for her and she would tell me what the picture was on the other side. The picture was on the side facing away from her. She had no way of seeing it. I held up a card with a fork on it. She tilted her head at me, smiling with those adorable dimpled cheeks of hers. 

"You eat with it mommy." She said happily. She shook her head and wrinkled her nose at me still smiling. She laughed at me as if she expected me to know what was on the other side, since it was facing me and I was looking right at it. It felt weird to be outsmarted by a kid. 

My eyes went wide and I flipped to the next card nervously like I always did. This one was of a car. 

Her dark emerald eyes scanned it for a second. "Auntie Nattie has one..a shee-den!" I put the card down..she even named the type of car it was. This went on for about an hour. She got ALL of them right. She didn't miss any of them. Next was to watch the trid with her. First morning cartoons, then she'd switch it to the afternoon Action flicks. She loved the Action Channel. I tried to get her to stop watching that and watch something more suited for children. I'd pick up the controller and change the signal to cartoons. But she always grabbed it and changed it back after I got distracted, or dozed off in the middle of it. Then when I'd get mad, she'd flash those puppy dog eyes at me. That was the surrendering point. She'd get to watch her movies. 

A man doing some sort of karate flipped across the screen, shouting and yelling as he went. Lucia pointed and sang gleefully, "It's like daddy!!! Daddy better though..hehehehe" That made me afraid of just what Phantom had been teaching her before he… left. I got up to make lunch. I had to busy myself with something or risk breaking down then and there. I blessed Nat for all the energy she possessed to raise as many children as she had. 

Later, after more card games, playing with toys, and several hours of watching the most corny karate movies I'd ever seen, I'd have to make more food for her. She ate like a trash compacter. She was hungry almost every thirty minutes. I accounted it to her high metabolism. After all, she'd grown so fast, all of her baby clothes didn't fit. She was reduced to wearing MY clothes. She slept a lot too. When she slept, she'd sleep for hours at a time. Nothing could wake her up. A pattern I had noticed in Phantom as well. I called Neo and asked him about the Awakened. I knew in my gut that Lucia was one of the Awakened, the magically active, even before I had her tested for it. I figured as an Awakened himself, Neo could give me a picture of what exactly was going to happen when she hit puberty, ..and of how I should handle it. 

He told me that around age twelve, which would probably be within a few months for her, she would manifest powers. The key to raising her would be to teach her control, and to exert tolerance. He said the most important thing would be to love her just like always. That was simple, I loved her more than life itself, even when it hurt to look at her and see Phantom reflected in her features. As for the nature of her powers? He said I would just have to wait and see what happens. 

Lucia was finally asleep. One of her many naps during the day. I took this time to go through all of Phantom's things. I had to know more about this Kazuya. We had failed at trying to kill him on a wetworks Run, and now this dream I had. The dream told me he was more than just a routine hit. He was something more to Phantom's life, and the mystery of his past. If I've learned anything from running the shadows, it was that there was more to this guy then there seemed. In a black bag, I found a small photo of the man. He was distinctly Japanese, just like I remember him from Phantom's inherited memories. He had dark eyes that hid the inner workings of his mind from the rest of the world. Just by looking at the photo, I could not see past them, only I could tell that there was something wicked about them. The déjà vu continued as I flipped the picture over and looked at the date. I couldn't believe it. It read 2042. That was twenty years ago! And yet, he looked the same…he carried that same cold visage. 

I rummaged around, even more determined to find the smallest bit of info on this …Kazuya. I threw aside old newspapers and ripped through old business magazines. Finally, after half an hour of digging through old papers and documents, I found a magazine with Kazuya on the cover. Business Men of the UCAS. Some dumb reporter, who was probably dead now, had gotten right up in his face and snapped a picture of him just as he was getting out of a limousine. I stared at the photo intently. This was the face of the man that had sculpted him. Why did I feel he was like David? Sculpting people like they were lifeless puppets. 

I stared at the picture again, into the eyes. There was something strange about them, moreso than the other picture. And it wasn't just a trick of the lighting. They had a reddish glow to them. I remember the demonic vision in the dream. The violet glow of his skin and the red, evil eyes. The photo seemed to capture the anger which released that energy. In the center of his forehead in the photo, there was a faint red diamond. So faint it was probably considered just a blotch in the production. The third eye. I remembered it well from the dream. I looked at the date to the picture. March 6, 2060. It was a recent picture, and yet he still looked the same. He hadn't aged a bit. I stared at the picture for an eternity trying to decipher the mysteries of this man,…of this monster. The papers I'd ripped out were thrown all over the room, all over the table, all over the couch. I barely noticed when Lucia approached me from her room. 

"Mommy.." She stared at all the loose papers and looked down at me sitting Indian style in the middle of them all, "You made a big mess." She cocked her head at me, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. 

"Not right now, sweety…" My gaze remained locked with the picture of Kazuya Mishima. "…Mommy's going mentally insane." 

At dinnertime, the table was spread with as much information I could find about the Mishima Corporation. The files the Johnson had given us on the main building here in Seattle, the orders for stocks in the business magazines, the records of decreases and increases in shares, corporate mergers, company allies, company enemies. Renraku was on that list. Everything, no matter how insignificant, was spread out in an orderly fashion. Kazuya's picture was nailed to the table with a kitchen knife. I scanned from one to another, hoping my eyes would pick up some clue to make a connection. Obviously they did more than just make mainstream appliances. They were a megacorp, they had their thumbs in every pie possible, from military contracting to weapons...the words human weapons echoed through my mind. I stared from one item to the next, trying to piece the grand scheme together. I finally banged my forehead against the table and let it rest there. Things seemed so hopeless. 

Lucia sat across from me eating the salad I had made her for dinner. She watched me curiously with her round emerald eyes. "Mommy?" She asked suddenly. A few moments of silence later, I responded. 

"Yes?" 

"Are we rabbits? We have big ears and we eat lettuce all the time." She blinked at me, seriously concerned by the question of if we were rabbits or not. I sighed and answered her with the patience only a mother could have. 

I'd seen a rabbit in a book before when I was small. I think I maybe ate one in a Japanese restaurant…but it was probably more soy than rabbit.   
"No, sweety, we're not rabbits. Eh, we're… Elves." 

"Oh! ..ok." She bobbed her head, happily relieved, and returned to eating. 

Later, I snuck away from watching movies with her and dug through the memory in my pocket secretary. I had to have his name somewhere. I sighed in relief when I did find it. I still had an old chummer's number, Oberon. He introduced me and Nat to the biz a few years back. I didn't know whether to thank him or strangle him next time I saw him. I grabbed the comm and dialed his number hurriedly. He had to know something about Kazuya. From what I knew about him, he was the son of Tokishada Oshino, the leader of one of the prominent Yakuza families. The members of the family didn't like the fact that the role of Oyabun was going to pass to an elf. They were primarly ran by normal humans and having Oshino bring in an elf successor upset a lot of 'human' purists within the group. So, instead of making him his successor, Tokishada made Oberon his personal assassin, investing several million nuyen into his son's 'upgrade'. He used him as a hitman for opposing lords and to wipe out any competition that entered into their family's territory. We met him on one of his routine wipes. He almost killed me and Nat, but he saw the potential we had, as patsies or pawns… you pick one, and hooked us up with his father and to the world of the Shadows, the corporate in-betweens where we could make some real money in our stagnant lives. He was the one that got us cybered as well. 

I choked back the knot of nervousness that caught in my throat when he answered with a gruff, "Hoi?" 

"Hey, Obie, it's me." Only I could call him that without losing a limb. He told me I could because I was 'pretty' and 'pretty ladies could call him whatever they wanted'. 

"Aurora Adonai???" There was a short pause. "HAHA…isn't it a pleasure to hear your voice again! You're not dead!! You ever going to take me up on that date? Bet you haven't found a real man yet." Which was funny to hear from him because he hardly had any flesh left in his body, he was so heavily Wired. 

"This isn't a social call, Oberon-san, wakarimasu?" I switched to Japanese to make it easier for both of us to talk. Our first language was Japanese, even though I was a bit rusty of late. And he sounded like such a hick when he talked in English, it almost made me laugh. He spoke sharply and appropriately in Japanese, his deep-throated voice ringing in my ears. I asked him about Kazuya Mishima. There was an extended moment of silence that unnerved me before he finally answered. 

"You do not want to mess with this man, Aurora. The last Runners who tried to hit him did not have so much luck." I twinged at that. We were those unfortunate idiots who tried to hit him last. He continued. "I worked for him on a couple of jobs to show the Mishima that the Oshino are ally to them. He's a major asshole despite being one of the more dangerous Yakuza lords in the area. The Oshino give him his space and their respect. He has been a part of the Yakuza for many years, even longer than my father. He disappeared for a period of years and then returned. I do not know much more about him than that." 

"Hm…but I can tell you one thing. He certainly likes his hookers." 

Leave it to Oberon to twist the conversation just when he was getting to the more important issues. I sighed and rolled my eyes. At least my information was confirmed. 

"Thanks, Obie." I returned back to English. "You've been a big help." Not really, but I had to say something to him. 

"Hey, why don't you stop by the Lysastrata anymore? I been there recently and they said you quit. Don't hide that sexy Elven bod of yours from the world. We need some publicity." 

"I'm sorry, Obie, I don't have much time to talk about it. A lot's been going on. I can't explain it right now. Sayonara." I quickly said goodbye and hung up the comm. 

I walked back over to the couch. Lucia was asleep. There was no waking her up for a good long while. I picked her up, took her to her room, and tucked her in. She didn't even move. I wished I could achieve that kind of deep sleep. With the couch now clear, I sprawled out over it and stared at the papers spread over the coffee table. Mishima. Mishima Inc. Mishima Corporation. Kazuya Mishima. The Yakuza. Instead of achieving the grand epiphany that I thought would strike while I was sitting there concentrating, I dozed off to sleep. 

I was having so many dreams lately. I never used to dream. Before my mind had always been solemn, silent,… empty. But now memories and dreams intermingled in messages I knew my mind was trying to send to me. 

We had failed the hit miserably. Worse than failing, we had lost a member of the team. We had lost Rav, the Orc who had tried to save me from David back at the NAN. He was almost a friend, and I knew the poor guy had a crush on me. It was so rare to find a Runner who was innocent like he seemed. I guess, in the end, that is what killed him. 

Things had gone routinely. We snuck in the ventilation system. But somehow we got separated. Things collapsed from there. We barely managed to escape the security teams and infiltrate the top levels. Worse than that …I almost lost the baby. Earlier that same day, the doctor had finally confirmed it. I got stuck on the receiving end of a large drone's handblade. The mechanical monstrosity had slashed open my lower belly. It wasn't deep enough to kill me, but it was deep enough to cause a lot of blood loss. I thank god and Neo to this day for having his healing hands there. He stopped the bleeding long enough for me to live through the whole terrible experience. Every experience seemed to be terrible of late. We made it to the top floor with the luck of a retinal scan. That's when I first laid my eyes on the man that plagued my thoughts now. Kazuya Mishima. 

Through over one hundred floors, we'd finally reached the top. Kazuya was there in the back-center of the vast stretch of office, staring out the window at the infernal city lights. He seemed content, like he owned the world. He had black hair that was slicked back and then feathered up the back of his head. In his reflection in the window, I could see he had piercing black eyes and high arched eyebrows. He was Japanese, of course. The lights were dimmed so it was too easy to sneak up around his flank using the shadows of his office. Neo stayed back as Rav prepped his smartlink and activated his laser-guided shot. The tiny red beam locked on with the back of Kazuya's head and I heard the faint click of the trigger as Rav fired. A blue field sparked to life around his form. My eyes went wide with shock. We were busted. The gun had triggered an automated defense system. Alarms rang all around us and I was certain that the door locked behind us as well. We were trapped. We were dead. We were meat. Kazuya whipped around and noticed me flanking him. He shot towards me with red anger glowing in his eyes. Before I could react, he had me up in the air over his head, my body supported by just one arm. Then he slammed me down and I tasted the bitter tile floor. 

I couldn't see straight for a few seconds. My body wouldn't respond, it was embedded into the floor. I forced myself to drag my heavy limbs into a standing position. The others weren't fairing so well. Kazuya moved lightening fast as he dispatched us, one after the other. With a kick here, a twisting punch there. He seemed to enjoy the sport. I knew he had to be very well trained in martial arts. Two Samurai and one mage couldn't take him. Wizkid's voice sparked to life in my head. He was the decker-boy who had helped us hack through their security. His voice cracked up over the signal. He had run into some Black IC, a hacker countermeasure. 

"I got… an elevator up there. …Pull out!" The kid sounded exhausted. The IC had done a number on him. I didn't waste the time arguing with him. I yanked on Neo, who was just recovering from his beating. I yelled at Rav to get the hell out. But he looked at me and shouted, "Get outta here!" I stared at him for a split second. He was stark raving mad to stay, but I didn't argue. I dragged Neo out and we fled to the safety of the elevator. It was some type of external business elevator that led all the way to the bottom. Soon as it hit bottom, the van, driven by a fatigued Wizkid, was waiting for us to make a quick escape. I helped Neo to the van as swiftly as I could. We helped each other, we were both beat up and about to pass out. We looked up just in time to see his body hit the ground a few feet away from us. 

We stared in shock for what seemed like an endless moment. The body was barely recognizable. It had crushed when it hit the pavement, but I recognized the dragon tattooed on what was probably his torso. The bastard had tossed Rav out of the top floor window. I cursed to myself as the wound in my stomach ached, reminding me that we had to leave or die. We fled in the van. I sat there bleeding. The wound had reopened from the exertion. Nat had escaped through the front of the building. 

I wasn't in the best of moods when I got home that night. The landlord would probably be pissed about the bloodstains in the rug. At that point in time, I didn't give a shit. I dragged myself back to our apartment and nearly broke down the door calling for Phantom. He caught me as I stumbled in the doorway and picked me off my feet. I know I probably scared him then. It would have scared him more if he had known I was pregnant when that happened. He put me to bed and did the laying on of hands that he used to heal. I breathed a sigh of relief and embraced him. He was too tense to take the news, so I decided to wait to tell him I was pregnant till the next day, there were better things to do so we could BOTH relax. 

Why did the best sex always come after a healing? Oh well, no complaints here. I would face the world tomorrow, right then, all that mattered was that I was alive and I could be in his arms again. Shadowrunning was becoming less and less appealing as the jobs began to hack away at the years of my life. Tomorrow would be another day.   


My mind was anxious. I knew what was coming next. My dreaming memories continued.   


Things only went from bad to worse when tomorrow finally came. Our Johnson contacted us. He was not pleased. The failed hit was turning into something sour. He called us all to meet at a bar. Things were definitely not good. 

What was worse was that Phantom had to leave on a mission. He wouldn't tell me what it was about. I sat across from him as he cooked breakfast for us. I could never cook. All I knew how to do was make a salad. He'd taken the news of the pregnancy well. I'd told him when we first woke up. He seemed happy, and yet worried all at the same time. It was as if he wasn't quite sure what the concept of a child meant, whether it was something to fear or to welcome. I watched him closely as he concentrated on making some eggs, his white eyes and his almost-elven face. I tilted my head at him. A ninja that could cook..hehe..funny. I put my hand on my chin and loosened the white bathrobe I wore just a little bit, showing some cleavage. He stayed concentrating on the eggs. I rolled my eyes and crossed my legs. He was soo clueless sometimes! I had to get his attention somehow and the last resort was always the hair. I reached out and started pulling on a spikey tendril of black hair above his left ear. He shifted his eyes from the eggs and then to me..to the eggs…and then back to me again. I put a fingertip on his chin. 

"You really are clueless sometimes, you know that?" We still had a little time left over before he had to leave on his mission, and we both knew it. He just couldn't leave without giving me something to remember him by. He smiled at me, that cute uneven smile and held up an egg. 

"Uh…scrambled or..." He cleared his throat. "...sunny-side up?" 

I laughed softly at him and ran my hand slowly down his arm. 

"Sunny side up…" I broke the egg for him with a tap of my finger. 

"Okay…!" He dropped the egg, shell and all, into the pan and circled around the counter, finally getting the message. We made love right then and there on the white tiles of the kitchen counter. 

I miss times like this…stupid times, the simple things. Where I could just be a stupid, silly girl who could make out with her boyfriend. We were normal, we could love without getting caught up in a drama of life and death. 

I sat at the kitchen table watching him pull out all of his equipment. It was almost time for him to leave. He donned himself in the dark stealth armor that was becoming so familiar to me. His weapons were laid out on the table in front of me. His Government-Issue Katana, a wakasashi, a belt packed with various bombs and supplies, a row of shuriken. I tried not to doubt his ability, I know he doubted mine whenever I went off on a Run. But I knew he had his motives for whatever he did, so I let him go. I couldn't stop him, and I didn't want to. Every mission was his choice. They fulfilled whatever hidden fire of hatred I saw burning within his eyes. 

Finally he was prepared and it was time to go. I sighed and walked beside him to the front door. I wished I could go with him,… hate what he hates. I wanted to be there to fight with him. But he wanted to do it alone, and I had my own business to attend to. He held both my hands in his as we stood not wanting to leave for a brief moment at the door. I sighed again. I hated to say goodbye, I was never any good at it. 

"You kick some ass for me, okay?" I took my hands away from Phantom's and pulled down his mask. I gave him a kiss on the lips. Something to remember me by. He closed his eyes as he corrected his mask, his mission set before him. Then he turned and left. Now it was my time to take care of business. 

The Johnson slammed a paper down in front of our faces when we went to meet him at the bar. The paper had our profiles on it, as well as a markup of the attempted assassination of Kazuya. We were fragged unless we completed the hit on him that same day. We had to hit him before he had a chance to authorize his public statement to release the article and screw us all over. The Johnson threw the information at us. It was our last chance, to save our own asses and get paid. Kazuya had moved from the city to a mansion out on the border of Seattle. It was private property. Less chance for mistakes, less chance for witnesses. 

A new Runner joined us for the fun. His real name was Nathaniel, I can't remember his Running name. Richard recommended him to us. He was definitely a newbie. I didn't feel like breaking in a newbie, but we needed the people, and he was definitely Wired. He had some heavy artillery that would be most welcome. 

We took two hours to drive out in freezing cold weather to find his mansion. By the time we neared the property's parameter it was nightfall. We stopped a couple miles out and prepared to walk on foot. Simply driving up in a big Sedan would have been a bit noticeable. We stood outside prepping our equipment and freezing our asses. All I had was a trench coat, what good that was. Nat was safe though, she had some nice new armor her behemoth had bought her for Christmas, or her birthday, or something. It kept her nice and warm. She loaned me some of her older thermal armor. Finally we were ready. We prepared to move out. 

But something stopped us. They were all around, those bobbing lights. They moved between the trees and tightened around us. I held my submac at the ready, struggling to maintain steadiness against the adrenaline that made my hands twitch. My vision flashed red and green between thermographic and night vision. It had to be those figures from before, from the NAN. I could just barely make them out. I stepped back towards the Sedan, tightening the area of cover to jump behind. 

"We meet again." His voice made me freeze. It made all the fear and anger within me boil up to the surface by the mere sound of it. David crouched on the roof of the Sedan as if he'd been sitting there all along, watching us. I spun around and leveled the gun at him, backing up a few steps. 

"David!" I whispered the name to reassure myself he wasn't a figment of my imagination. 

"In the flesh…" He casually tossed his head, the black side of his face gleaming with darkened metallic flesh and wire. The figures in the forests stopped in their positions. My eyes remained on him. He was a repeating nightmare. One that my mind was slowly beginning to recognize as real. He held up his hand and the mechanical creatures stopped. They stood around us hungrily, their glowing eyes piercing the darkness. I looked around for Nat. I couldn't find her. She had hidden somewhere. David looked around for her too. He knew she was there. "Come out, Natalie. Daddy's home…" 

Stay hidden. Stay hidden,Nat!! It was all I could think. All I could do was stare dumbly at him and pray to god that Nat stayed hidden. I don't know what kept me from unloading the whole goddamned clip into him. All my prayers went unanswered. Nat crawled out from underneath the Sedan. Her face was a frozen mask of horror and surprise. She must have had to see his face for herself. We had both dismissed it as a nightmare, or at least tried to. But there he was and there we were. I leveled the gun at him, but I didn't fire. If he died, the drones, or whatever they were, would flood in. He was the only thing keeping them at bay. My finger twitched against the trigger. Sweat poured down my forehead. I couldn't take it!! It was too much!!! I ached to mow him down, to put an end to his smiling façade. My hatred made me burn so much that I couldn't feel the cold of the blizzard that sent delicate flakes of ice into my eyes. Natalie walked towards him and I stepped forward. David looked at me and made me freeze in my tracks with a flash of his eyes. One move and we would all die. Just one move. I ground my teeth together and glared back at him. I bared my fangs and horns and snarled at him like a beast. It was all I could do. He walked up to Natalie and stroked her face. She stared at him dumbfounded, as I had been when I first saw him again. I could see it in her eyes. She had reverted back to the way we used to be, privy to his every whim. 

"Hi, daddy." Her robotic response followed. I clenched my eyes shut. Hot tears burned into my cheeks. I couldn't watch this. I couldn't stop it. There was the slam of a car door and I stood there frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity. When I opened them again, she was leaned against the car biting her lip and rocking like a small child. It was her mechanism when we used to live at the Home with him. She'd turn into a small, naïve child. 

"You were always my favorite." He spoke to Natalie, as if I was the other preteen who should be jealous of his attention. David had a satisfied look on his face. He was satisfied that he still possessed power. Again it took all my nerves not to unload my submac into him, to strip him of that smile. He looked at me with his cold eyes, a glint of triumph in them. 

My own harsh voice hissed through my clenched fangs, "I'll kill you again, I swear it." David looked almost hurt at that remark. He stopped smiling. No remarks, no gestures, until he finally asked a question. 

"Why?" 

I stared at him, shocked. I wasn't expecting that. I lowered my gun and watched him carefully. 

"Why did you do it in the first place?" 

I was silent for a few moments, my eyes blazing with furious turmoil. He had the gall to ask me that??? It was sickening. It was frustrating…It…it made me laugh. My laughter echoed high among the treetops. It was an evil laughter, insane, one that would have scared me had I been in the right state of mind. I laughed till my eyes watered and I was almost out of breath. 

"You never asked…" My own voice cracked with the wrath infused into it, "You never asked…" You took, you took without asking. You stole without remorse. "You deserve every stab I gave you with that blade." Like a thief in the night. 

David was silent. He stared back at me, his face unreadable, but still devoid of that sneer. He turned away from me and started to walk off. As he walked, he raised his black palm into the air. 

"Kill them…"   
I unloaded the whole clip at him, craving the noise that would come when his body hit the ground. But it never came. In a blink he was gone and the shadowy figures that were hiding just beyond the trees' edge swarmed in upon us. I dove past them and into the cover of the foliage. The group scattered chaotically. Gunfire erupted from the newbie. I saw the flash of mana spells in the night. Neo unleashed his magical arsenal into the area. I saw him hug back against the now overturned Sedan. Natalie had hid again, but I knew for sure that she was popping them from a distance with some type of weapon. I rushed into the fray, sword drawn. It was too chaotic to use the submachine gun. I risked hitting the others. This way I could get a clean hit and… I craved blood. A bullet wouldn't do. I wanted blood if the bastards could bleed; I wanted fear if they could feel it. It wasn't his, but it would do. I spotted one of them within reach. In a flash I was upon him. I was greeted with sparks and not blood where my blade scraped a gouge into his…its… back. I lunged again and tore at where I thought the spine would be. The creature fell to the ground twitching in robotic agony. I stabbed down again, aiming for the node on its face. It's light was finally extinguished. 

I rushed in once more, gunfire roared in my ears. I didn't even feel it when a bullet went clean through my ear and nailed one of the figures in the face. I kept charging in, the rush of battle overwhelming me. My anger fueled me. I screamed with it, flowed with it and let it fly with the katana that became a part of my flesh. My body whirled in a dance of chaotic sweeps. There was no skill to it, only a deadly rage, and the urge to kill. Anything dark that had a node I tore into without thought. I only came back to my senses when I saw the newbie's body fly across my peripheral vision and slam into the bottom of the Sedan. Nathaniel lay limp. He was a sitting duck. He was just a kid. I moved to go pick him up and drag him out of the fray. A blow to my face stopped me before I could get to him. 

They had appeared just out of thin air, like spirits. Their dark bodies were different than the others. One was purple and the other four were dark crimson. I spun around with the sword in an effort to keep them away. They had pinned me in a tight circle. I growled in frustration and looked from one to the other. I kick to the ribs doubled me over immediately. It was like getting hit by a bullet train. I could hardly manage the curse word that sputtered out when I hacked red blood onto the perfectly white snow. I got back up, standing uneasily. Several blows hammered into me from the back, the front and both sides. All sides. My ribs cracked on the left, my arm broke on the right. I didn't have time to scream, only to recoil as my body was beaten. The bitter taste in my mouth told me I probably had a crushed liver. My mind hadn't registered the pain yet, it was all happening too fast. It just hadn't caught up yet. Even as I tried to fall, my body was delayed from its rest on the ground by ever more blows. I could hear the bones cracking but I didn't know they were mine. One of them caught me by the neck and the beating finally ceased. I opened my eyes just in time to see the burning blue blade pierce my chest. Everything stopped in that instant. The empty, soulless light of the node burned bright in my fading vision. There was no emotion in it. It wasn't the face I wanted to see when I died. Another grain of time fell and the energy blade slowly withdrew, my body finally allowed to fall and meet the snow-covered earth. I remember the pure white of it. The cold. Snowflakes fluttered around my eyes and landed in the growing pools of crimson that stained the ground. It wasn't over yet. I couldn't believe it even as my vision reddened with blood. I had so much to do. I wasn't done yet. I couldn't smile at death this time like I could have just a few months ago. What little I had was so much. I gripped on the last strings of ebbing life like a predator; I hungered for it as it left me. 

Phantom would be so furious. I couldn't take care of my own business. 

Those were my last thoughts when my breath left me without permission. The white of the snow flooded my vision and I fell into the earth, into a great darkness. 

There was nothing for a few long vague moments. Until a light zig-zagged back and forth across my vision. It was a paramedic's flashlight. 

"Hey buddy, are you alright?!" 

The light faded and the vision was gone. My mind couldn't hold onto it. I slipped again into the void. 

"Mommy? Mommy??" It was a child's voice. Then I didn't know it was Lucia's because she hadn't been born yet, I just had the feeling that it was my child's voice. "Wake up! Wake up!" 

I fell again, my mind plummeting. It stopped when I heard another voice. 

"Aurora???" 

"Keiji…Kage…" 

"Aurora..you can't die…" It was Phantom's voice. I tried to find him, but I couldn't move, only stare up into the blackness. He suddenly appeared before me, his hand outstretched. His fingertips grazed my face. It was a soft touch that felt like teardrops on my cheek. No sooner had he appeared than he was gone again. I screamed out for him to come back.   
"Aurora, wake up! You can't die!! Wake up! Take what you need from me…" 

"Live!" 

I saw that morning, when I kissed him goodbye. Flashes of images barraged me. Phantom standing in a white hallway splattered in blood. The pink walls of the Home for Goblinized Children. There was a woman staring down at me, her hair was blood red like mine. She looked to me and then back to a dark-haired man. He kept his back turned, I couldn't see his face. She looked to me again; her green eyes welled up with tears. All I could see were her bright green eyes. Mother… 

"She'll ruin both our lives…I won't allow you to keep her. It's too much of a risk for us." My father's deep voice commanded while my mother's green eyes poured shining tears. She petted my hair and spoke. Her voice was soft, akin to my own. 

"My Small Light, my Aurora…" She sobbed again while Father kept his back turned. His voice took on a softer, but still strict tone as he spoke. "They'll kill us both if they find her, Maria." Mother turned away, tears still in her eyes. They walked off into the emptiness and out of my life. I sat there and cried while I still had tears to shed. I didn't need them. They don't mean anything to me now. They left me so I don't need them anymore, I thought. But still I cried. 

There was a little girl sitting in a yellow-tile shower sniffling. Locks of red hair were scattered around her feet. I had cut my hair because I knew he liked it long. I tightened my knees up against my chest and rubbed the purple swell that was a busted lip. Little ropes of blood spun down the drain. That's when I'd first learned not to cry because he didn't like. I clenched the loose strands of hair tighter in my hands. It was all the defiance I could manage against someone so much more powerful than me, against someone who controlled my life and death. David… I spit out and watched the bloody swathe wash down the drain with what innocence I had left. I wouldn't cry ever again for years. 

This place seemed so unfamiliar. It was a field full of yellow flowers. They crowded around my outstretched body. The flowers faded again and I felt someone cradling my head softly. There was only one person who cared enough to be so tender. 

"Phantom?" I whispered the words so softly I hardly heard them leave my lips. There was no answer. 

My eyes trembled open and caught the last snowflakes dancing around my face. I was alive! My body felt better than it had before. The pain from my injuries was non-existent. I felt invigorated! Uplifted! Complete! 

Until I looked down and saw Phantom's body sprawled over mine. He wasn't moving, wasn't breathing, wasn't smiling. I choked on the moment, unable to move. My mind went in so many frantic directions that it stopped processing all together. I put my hands on him to feel for life. He wasn't moving! Every moment I'd been with him he was always moving, walking, exercising, smiling shyly. The tears flowed from me like a fountain from my heart. I didn't even feel them. They froze on my face with the growing cold. 

Finally, there was a spark of life when he inhaled sharply. His breathing was light, barely there. My heart beat again and I stroked his face in every effort to keep him warm and alive. Ghost towered over us, no doubt making a mockery of my sorrow. I sat back helpless as he lifted Phantom's unconscious body into the air easily. I stared at him, panic-stricken for a few moments. I knew they had some kind of hate for one another. Was he going to kill him?? I begged him with shaky pleas. I knew he could've killed him then. 

The Behemoth turned towards the Sedan and gently laid Phantom on the inside. Somewhere underneath that mask, I knew Ghost must have been smiling to see me beg him for something. I looked around frantically. The drones were gone. We quickly gathered our things and piled into the sedan. I cradled Phantom's head in my lap and listened for every next breath. His mask was off so I could better monitor his respiration. His face was so pale, devoid of life. Steadily we crept towards our destination. No matter what, we had to finish this tonight. Our lives depended on it. And now Phantom's life depended on me. Every breath he took was softer and softer. It was as if he were deeply asleep. I was afraid every bump we took on the path to the mansion would break his fragile link to life. So, I talked to him, reassured him that I was there. I would be his link. I knew he was this way because he gave everything he had to heal me, to bring me back from the brink. 

The car stopped and everyone got out. I stroked Phantom's hair tenderly. It was so hard to let go, but I had to. I had to. There was no more time to cry. I tightened my grip on my sword. It was time to fight. I walked out with the others. He was safer here than anywhere I could think of at that moment. 

Ghost pressed a button on his forearm and the car blinked and cloaked out of existence. The _click-click_ of guns being loaded and prepped stabbed through the crisp white air. My katana, Government-Issue, sister sword to Phantom's, sang with the flint I ran along its edge. The fading sunlight crept away as the shadows fell. The artificial lights of Kazuya's mansion signaled us from afar. 

We were finally ready to run those shadows. 

Tonight we'd end it. Tonight would be my last Run because I couldn't do this job anymore. I couldn't take him being hurt because of me anymore. I finally had something to live for, someone to be next to, and a child to bring into the world. 

This was it! 

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